1URCH 
IN  THE  BRITISH  ISLES 


Cibrarp  of C:he  trheolocfical  (Seminary 

PRINCETON  •  NEW  JERSEY 


PRESENTED  BY 

William  L.  Tucker 
BX  5071    .C58  1892 
The  Church  in  the  British 
Isles 


The  Church  Club  Lectures. 

Netv  and  cheaper  editions  in  cloth  binding* 
Price,  50  cents  each,  net. 

1888.  — THE  HISTORY  AND  TEACHINGS  OF 
THE  EARLY  CHURCH,  as  a  Basis  for  the 
Re-Union  of  Christendom.  By  Bishops  Coxe  and 
Seymour,  and  Rev.  Drs.  Richey,  Garrison,  and 
Egar. 

1889.  -THE  CHURCH  IN  THE  BRITISH  ISLES. 
Sketches  of  its  continuous  history  from  the  earliest 
times  to  the  Restoration.  By  Bishops  Doane  and 
Kingdon,  and  Rev.  Drs.  Hart,  Allen,  and  Gailor. 

1800.-THE  POST-RESTORATION  PERIOD  OF 
THE  CHURCH  IN  THE  BRITISH  ISLES. 
In  continuation  of  the  series  of  1889.  By  Bishops 
Perry  and  McLaren,  and  Rev.  Drs.  Mortimer, 
Richey,  and  Davenport. 
A  superior  edition  in  cloth,  gilt  lettered. 
Price,  $1.25  each,  net. 

E.  &  J.  B.  YOUNG  &  CO., 
Cooper  Union,  Fourth  Ave.,  New  York. 


IN 

THE  BRITISH  ISLES 


Sfcetcbes 

OF  ITS  CONTINUOUS  HISTORY 

FROM 

THE  EARLIEST  TIMES  TO  THE  RESTORATION 


LECTURES    DELIVERED  IN  1889  UNDER    THE    AUSPICES    OF  THB 
CHURCH  CLUB  OF  NEW  YORK 


SECOND  EDITION 


NEW  YORK 
E.&J.B.YOUNG&CO. 

COOPER  UNION,  FOURTH  AVENUE 
1892 


Copyright  1890, 
By  E.  &  J.  B.  Young  &  Co. 


CONTENTS. 


PAGE 

LECTURE  I. 

THE  CELTIC  CHURCH   I 

The  Right  Rev.  Wm.  C.  Doane,  D.D.,  S.T.D.,  LL.D., 
Bishop  of  Albany. 


LECTURE  II. 

THE  ANGLO-SAXON  CHURCH  

The  Rev.  Samuel  Hart,  D.D.,  Professor  of  Latin 
at  Trinity  College,  Hartford. 


LECTURE  III. 

THE  NORMAN  PERIOD   97 

The  Rev.  Alex.  V.  G.  Allen,  D.D.,  Professor  of  Ecclesiastical 
History  at  the  Theological  School,  Cambridge. 


LECTURE  IV. 

THE  REFORMATION  PERIOD   157 

The  Right  Rev.  H.  T.  Kingdon,  D.D.,  Bishop  Coadjutor 
of  Fredericton,  New  Brunsivick. 


LECTURE  V. 

THE  PURITAN  REACTION   i 

The  Rev.  Thomas  F.  Gailor,  S.  T.B.,  Professor  of  Ecclesias- 
tical History  at  the  University  of  the  South. 


Digitized  by  the  Internet  Archive 
in  2015 


https://archive.org/details/churchinbritishiOOdoan 


PREFACE. 


Those  who  in  theory  or  in  practice  deny 
that  corporate  union  of  Christians  is  desir- 
able, undervalue  one  of  the  main  functions 
of  the  Church,  albeit  one  which  has  for  some 
centuries  been  but  imperfectly  fulfilled  ;  that 
is,  its  witness,  as  a  continuous  institution, 
to  the  verity  of  the  facts  of  Christianity. 
An  unorganized  number  of  believers,  of  dif- 
ferent confessions,  without  external  or  vis- 
ible association,  are  witnesses  each  to  his 
own  experience  or  belief ;  and  the  force  of 
their  testimony  lies  in  the  concurrence  of 
so  many  persons. 

The  Church's  existence  as  an  institution 
is  evidence  of  a  different  kind.  This  indi- 
cates both  the  experience  or  the  belief  of 
the  individuals  who  now  constitute  the 
organization  and  the  prevalence  of  that 
belief  when  the  organization  was  founded. 


Vi  PREFACE. 

It  carries  back  the  testimony  to  contempo- 
raneous witnesses  who  saw  the  facts  that 
they  declared,  and  it  has  perpetuated  their 
testimony,  making  it  speak  afresh  to  each 
successive  generation  of  men.  No  other 
institution  has  exerted  so  profound  an  influ- 
ence upon  human  society,  and  none  has 
shown  so  wonderful  adaptability  to  the 
vicissitudes  of  human  experience  both  social 
and  individual,  and  no  other  has  maintained 
its  essential  character  and  its  vital  principles 
without  change  or  diminution,  as  this  has  ; 
and  to-day  it  is  witness  to  the  same  facts 
that  it  testified  to  eighteen  centuries  and  a 
half  ago. 

The  corporate  organization  of  the  Church 
has  alone  made  this  testimony  possible.  It 
has  both  preserved  the  formal  statement  of 
the  Christian  faith,  and  checked  individual 
and  sectary  deviations  from  it.  Whilst  most 
of  the  important  evangelical  bodies  of  Chris- 
tians have  held  to  the  same  facts  in  general, 
and  even  to  the  form  in  which  the  Church 


PREFACE. 


vii 


declares  them,  however  far  they  may  have 
departed  from  the  Church's  unity  and  order, 
and  from  her  ministry  and  sacraments,  yet 
who  shall  say  that  the  Catholic  Church's 
standard  has  not  been  their  guide?  that  she 
has  not  really  marked  the  channel  of  the 
truth,  however  they  may  have  seemed  to  be 
steering  their  own  way  ?  Suppose  that  at 
and  after  the  time  of  the  Reformation  all 
Christians  had  deserted  the  Church,  as  so 
many  did  in  Northern  Europe  and  Great 
Britain,  and  had  established  all  over  Chris- 
tendom little  or  large  sects,  or  independent 
congregations,  each  with  its  own  confession, 
its  self-constituted  ministry,  and  its  own 
pride  of  opinion  :  would  they  not  have  lost 
themselves  and  been  swallowed  up,  like  the 
Rhine,  in  the  sands  and  swamps  of  philo- 
sophical and  theological  uncertainties,  of 
political  and  social  transformations  ? 

As  in  all  human  affairs  the  most  cogent 
evidence  of  past  transactions  is  found  in 
their  monuments,  whether  in  the  chipped 


viii  PREFACE. 

flints  of  cave-dwellers,  the  pyramids  of 
Egyptian  kings,  or  the  jurisprudence  of 
Justinian,  so  we,  confronted  by  the  monu- 
ments of  Christianity — the  Church,  with  her 
sacraments  and  holy  rites,  the  Lord's  Day, 
and  others,  and  by  the  effects  of  Christian- 
ity upon  mankind, — we  believe  that  Jesus 
Christ  lived,  and  died,  and  rose  again,  and 
was  what  He  declared  Himself  to  be,  the 
Eternal  Son  of  God. 

An  invisible  Church  has  no  such  eviden- 
tial value.  It  has  neither  form  nor  organi- 
zation, no  connection  with  the  past ;  it  is 
not  a  monument  nor  an  institution  ;  it  is,  in 
short,  not  a  thing  at  all:  it  is  but  an  idea,  a 
philosophical  conception,  a  name.  It  is  not 
a  house  built  of  hewn  stones  :  it  is  a  heap  of 
pebbles. 

As  time  separates  the  generations  of  men 
farther  and  farther  from  the  events  of  our 
Lord's  life  on  earth,  the  importance  of  main- 
taining this  monument  in  all  its  strength  in- 
creases ;  and  Churchmen  deplore  the  weak- 


PREFACE. 


ix 


ening  of  this  evidence  of  Christianity  by 
Christians,  whose  chief  interest  has  too 
often  seemed  to  be  its  disparagement.  Im- 
pressed with  this  need  the  Bishops  of  the 
whole  Anglican  Communion  have  invited 
all  Christians  to  return  to  the  unity  of  the 
Catholic  Church,  and  have  named  the  four 
well-known  propositions  on  the  basis  of 
which  this  result  may  be  achieved,  namely 
the  Scriptures,  the  Creeds,  the  Sacraments, 
the  Historic  Episcopate. 

Organized  soon  after  the  General  Con- 
vention of  1886,  in  which  these  overtures 
were  promulgated  by  the  House  of  Bishops, 
the  Church  Club  set  on  foot  a  course  of 
lectures  with  a  view  to  elucidate  in  some 
measure  the  significance  of  the  last  of  these 
points,  the  Historic  Episcopate,  not  so 
much  in  the  form  of  a  critical  study  as  in 
the  form  of  a  popular  exposition  of  the 
teaching  and  practice  of  the  Church  on  this 
subject  during  the  period  that  intervened 
between  the  Ascension  of  our  Lord  and  the 


X 


PREFACE. 


first  General  Council  of  Nicaea,  in  a.d.  325, 
when  the  form  of  the  Creed  was  substan- 
tially settled ;  a  period  during  which  the 
teaching  and  practice  of  the  Church  is  in 
theory,  if  not  actually,  appealed  to  with 
confidence  by  nearly  all  Christians  as  the 
true  standard  of  uncorrupt  Christian  faith 
and  theology,  and  by  which  most  of  the 
educated  reformers  and  founders  of  sects 
professed  to  be  guided.  In  those  lectures, 
delivered  by  the  Bishops  of  Western  New 
York  and  Springfield,  and  by  Professors 
Richey,  Garrison  and  Egar,  the  remarkable 
consensus  of  the  great  fathers  and  teachers 
of  the  Church,  and  of  the  Church's  practice 
everywhere  was  very  strikingly  portrayed  ; 
and  incidentally  they  forcibly  illustrated  the 
possibility  of  theologians  and  communities 
of  widely  differing  habits  of  thought  and 
life,  dwelling  in  far-distant  lands,  or  near  to- 
gether, placing  special  stress  on  different 
points  of  the  Christian  faith,  and  contend- 
ing as  the  special  champions  of  one  or  an- 


PREFACE. 


xi 


other  phase  of  the  truth,  without  setting  up 
a  new  sect,  or  cutting  loose  from  the  Cath- 
olic Church,  in  order  to  give  emphasis  to 
their  particular  topics  :  an  example  which, 
if  the  piety  of  Protestants  had  followed  it, 
would  have  gone  far  to  preserve  the  unity 
of  the  Church  to  our  own  days. 

That  course  of  lectures  has  been  followed 
by  another,  of  which  the  present  volume 
contains  the  first  series,  designed  to  exhibit 
the  continuous  corporate  life  in  the  British 
Isles,  of  the  Church  whose  teaching  and 
practice  were  thus  described,  not  by  a  dis- 
cussion of  the  evidence  of  continuous  suc- 
cession of  the  Episcopate,  but  by  describing 
in  brief  sketches  how  the  British  and  Eng- 
lish Church,  the  stock  and  parent  of  the 
Church  in  the  United  States,  appeared  and 
acted  in  the  great  periods  and  larger  divisions 
of  her  history,  in  relation  to  the  State,  the 
individual,  and  the  Church  in  other  lands, 
and  how  she  fulfilled,  at  different  times,  her 
divine  mission  to  the  people  who  dwelt  in 


xii 


PREFACE. 


those  islands  ;  and  so  sketching  our  bio- 
graphy back  to  the  Apostolic  ages.  The 
second  series  of  this  course,  continuing  the 
history  to  the  present  day,  will  soon  be 
published. 

The  thanks  of  the  Church  Club  and  of 
Churchmen  are  due  to  the  lecturers,  Bishops 
Doane  and  Kingdon  and  Professors  Allen, 
Hart  and  Gailor,  whose  learned  and  care- 
ful cooperation  has  enabled  the  Club  to  carry 
out  the  scheme  of  these  lectures. 


Ascension  Day,  1890. 


Ebe  Celtic  Cburcb. 


LECTURE  I. 


THE  RT.  REV.  W.  CROSWELL  DOANE,  S.T.D.,  LL.D., 

Bishop  of  Albany. 

THE  CELTIC  CHURCH. 

I  THINK  I  may  be  justified  in  assuming  that  I 
am  here  to  speak  not  to,  but  in  the  name  of  the 
Church  Club :  that  I  am  not  expected  to  say 
much  that  is  new  to  the  instructed  intelligence  of 
thoughtful  Churchmen  ;  but  rather  to  help  them  in 
setting  before  those  who  have  not  been  called  upon 
to  look  into  the  story — at  any  rate,  from  our  stand- 
point,— the  grounds  of  our  conclusion  about  the 
cradle  of  Christianity  in  which  our  ecclesiastical 
babyhood  was  really  rocked,  and  about  those  who 
rocked  that  cradle  when  the  Church  and  the  re- 
ligion of  Jesus  Christ  were  in  their  infancy  in 
Britain. 

And  having  said  this,  I  think  it  right  to  say  one 
more  thing:  that  I  am  sure  it  is  important,  even 
at  the  risk  of  some  tedious  repetition  of  well- 
known  facts,  to  avoid  what  is  said  (I  think  with 
justice)  to  be  a  clerical  error — namely,  the  taking 
3 


4 


THE  CELTIC  CHURCH. 


for  granted  that  the  people  whom  we  are  teaching 
know  as  much  about  the  subjects  as  the  teachers 
themselves. 

One  must  frankly  say,  in  reference  to  the  story 
of  the  first  missionaries  to  that  which  was  the 
original  of  England,  that  it  is  enveloped  in  the 
impenetrable  mystery  of  myths;  and  the  mystery 
of  myths,  like  the  mists  that  veil  the  inaccessible 
mountains,  and  muster  their  shadow-fleet  upon 
the  marge  and  rim  of  the  mighty  sea,  are  of  double 
birth — earthy  and  heavenly ;  springing  from  be- 
neath, but  drawn  up  on  high.  Whatever  may  be 
the  human  admixture  in  the  ten  separate  legends 
as  to  the  first  evangelization  of  Britain,  there  is 
at  least  the  heavenly  element  in  them  of  high 
motive  and  holy  zeal.  And  myths  mean  always 
distance  and  expanse.  So  that  even  if  St.  Clem- 
ent's description  of  St.  Paul's  journey,  "  to  the 
boundary  of  the  setting  sun,"  shall  only  mean 
Spain  and  the  Gauls ;  if  the  story  of  the  conse- 
cration, by  St.  Paul,  of  Aristobulus  means  merely 
what  the  name  means,  that  the  best  counsel  and 
judgment  were  used  and  set  apart  for  this  great 
work ;  if  the  holy  thorn  of  Glastonbury,  instead 
of  being  an  Aaron's  rod,  fades  into  a  dry  stick 
without  either  leaf  or  bloom ;  if  we  must  give  up 
the  story  in  the  Welch  Triads  of  the  father  of 
Caractacus,  coming  back,  like  Onesimus,  from  his 
exile  as  a  hostage  to  be  a  preacher  of  the  faith  ; 


THE  CELTrC  CHURCH. 


5 


if  we  must  forego  Bede's  story  of  the  mission  of 
Lucius  to  Eleutherus,  the  Bishop  of  Rome  (till  it 
means  only  that  Rome  was  free  to  act  for  the  con- 
version of  these  heathen) ;  even  if  we  relegate  all 
these  to  the  shadowy  land  of  legends,  at  least 
there  is  evidence  in  their  very  shadowiness  of  the 
very  early  introduction  of  Christianity  into  Brit- 
ain, before  history  becomes  legible,  or  chronology 
troubles  itself  with  dates. 

Loveliest  and  most  unlikely  of  the  fabulous 
foundings  of  Christianity  in  Britain  is  the  story  of 
Glastonbury.  One  almost  hates  to  say  that  no 
evidence  of  it  existed  earlier  than  the  eleventh 
century.  It  has  so  tinged  the  romantic  history 
of  the  period,  and  is  so  closely  connected  with  the 
favorite  hero  of  knighthood  and  chivalry,  King 
Arthur  ;  and  it  has  been  recited  in  so  many  stories 
of  wandering  minstrels,  and  sung  itself  in  such 
sweet  idylls  in  Tennyson  and  Lowell,  that,  false 
and  foolish  as  the  story  is,  it  seems  to  have  had 
in  it  a  power  of  purity  and  a  motive  of  high  pur- 
pose, in  a  very  peculiar  period  of  English  history. 
When  Sir  Galahad,  the  just  and  faithful  knight  of 
God,  whose  "  strength  was  as  the  strength  of  ten, 
because  his  heart  was  pure,"  rides  "  unarmed  what- 
e'er  betide  until  he  finds  the  Holy  Grail,"  we  must 
remember  that  it  was  the  story  of  the  introduction 
of  Christianity  into  England  by  Joseph  of  Arima- 
thea,  through  which  the  element  of  religious  chiv- 


6 


THE  CELTIC  CHURCH. 


airy  entered  into  the  court  and  times  of  Arthur, 
whose  knightly  vow  was  "  to  break  the  heathen 
and  uphold  the  Christ."  St.  Joseph  was  reported 
to  have  brought  with  him  the  San  Greal  or  Sang 
Real,  the  sacred  chalice  of  the  first  Eucharist,  or 
the  cup  in  which  the  Angels  collected  the  drops  of 
blood  during  the  crucifixion  ;  and  the  story  of  this 
vision,  granted  to  the  maiden  knight,  rings  in  our 
ears  and  lingers  in  our  hearts  with  at  least  this 
holy  teaching :  that  the  vision  of  God  is  to  the 
pure  in  heart ;  that  only  high  and  holy  consecration 
can  preserve  manhood  or  womanhood  against  the 
temptations  of  the  flesh  ;  and  that  they  only  and 
they  always,  to  their  souls'  good,  find  in  the  chalice 
of  every  Eucharist  the  true  Blood  of  Christ,  who 
come  to  the  holy  Altar  with  pure  and  clean  hearts. 

It  is  a  curious  phase  of  this  legend  that  at  the 
councils  of  Pisa  and  Constance  and  Basle,  the  ques- 
tion of  precedence  between  English  and  French 
ambassadors  came  constantly  up,  and  finally  was 
decided  in  favor  of  the  English  ambassador,  on 
the  ground  that  the  English  traced  their  Chris- 
tianity to  Joseph  of  Arimathea,  who  came  earlier 
to  Britain  than  Dionysius  the  Areopagite  came 
to  France. 

To  be  told  that  the  source  of  a  great  river  is 
inaccessible,  because  the  way  to  it  lies  through 
the  tangle  of  primeval  forests,  because  its  crystal 
cup  is  concealed  by  the  accumulation  of  the  dry 


THE  CELTIC  CHURCH. 


7 


leaves  of  countless  Novembers,  is  at  least  to  know 
that  the  stream  takes  its  rise  in  a  region  of  primi- 
tive purity,  and  is  incorrupt  and  uncontaminated 
at  the  fountain  head. 

There  must  be  in  any  investigation  like  this  a 
certain  agreement  about  the  meaning  of  unusual 
words ;  a  certain  recognition  of  facts  of  profane 
history  and  legend  ;  and  a  certain  amount  of 
knowledge  of  the  connection  among  the  nations, 
at  the  true  beginning  of  European  history,  or 
we  cannot  intelligently  enter  upon  the  fascinating 
subject  of  this  lecture. 

To  begin  with,  let  us  understand  that  by  the 
term  Celtic  Church,  we  mean  the  Church  which 
existed  in  Great  Britain  and  Ireland  five  centu- 
ries before,  and  as  many  centuries  after,  the  mis- 
sion of  St.  Augustine.  In  central  England,  be- 
fore Augustine  landed,  the  Church  had  become 
extinct,  partly  by  the  extermination  of  its  mem- 
bers, and  partly  by  the  removal  of  the  rest  to 
a  safe  distance  from  the  heathen  invaders.  In 
North  Wales,  Scotland  and  Ireland  the  Britons 
remained,  differing  from  the  usages  and  inde- 
pendent of  the  rule  of  the  Anglo-Saxon  Church, 
until  the  close  of  the  eighth  century,  and  in  Corn- 
wall until  the  close  of  the  tenth.  So  that  we  must 
(rather  we  may)  include  in  this  survey  the  story, 
in  a  portion  at  least  of  Great  Britain,  of  at  least 
eight  centuries  of  Christian  life  and  work.  Equally 


THE  CELTIC  CHURCH. 


important  it  is  to  recognize  certain  facts  of  pro- 
fane history,  about  the  people  whom  we  call  the 
Celts,  and  about  their  relation  to  the  inhabitants 
of  other  countries.  Celts,  Galatians,  Gauls  :  these 
are  the  same  words  really,  in  their  root  ;  and  the  re- 
lation among  these  people,  in  their  different  dwell- 
ing places,  was  close,  and  is  important  to  be  studied. 
The  oldest  form  of  the  name  undoubtedly  is  Celt, 
which  we  find  in  Dionysius  and  Strabo,  in  Heca- 
taeus  and  Herodotus  It  was  the  name  by  which 
the  Gauls  in  the  neighborhood  of  Marseilles  desig- 
nated themselves.  Later  on  they  were  called  by 
the  Greeks  Galatians  ;  and  the  Roman  name  for 
the  same  people  was  the  Gauls. 

Originating  in  Central  Asia,  one  of  the  three 
great  divisions  of  men  (Celts,  Teutons  and  Slavs), 
they  were  a  restless,  turbulent,  nomad  people,  re- 
taining their  characteristics  in  spite  of  admixtures, 
whether  with  the  Phrygians  and  Greeks  in  Asia, 
with  Romans  and  Jews  in  Gaul,  or  in  England, 
with  Saxons,  Normans  and  Danes. 

Lightfoot  in  his  wonderful  introduction  to  the 
Epistle  of  the  Galatians  describes  them  as  "  quick 
of  apprehension,  prompt  in  action,  very  impress- 
ible, and  with  a  great  craving  after  knowledge,"  and 
on  the  other  hand,  as  "  constantly  quarrelsome  and 
treacherous  in  their  dealings,  incapable  of  sus- 
tained effort,  and  very  easily  disheartened  by  fail- 
ure."   "  The  language  in  which  Roman  writers 


THE  CEL  TIC  CHURCH. 


9 


speak  of  the  martial  courage  of  the  Gauls  [he 
quotes  Livy],  impetuous  at  the  first  onset,  but 
rapidly  melting  in  the  heat  of  the  fray,  well  de- 
scribes the  short-lived  prowess  of  these  converts 
in  the  warfare  of  the  Christian  Church,"  and  while 
Caesar  speaks  of  them  as  "  very  much  given  to  re- 
ligion," Motley  says,  in  his  "  Dutch  Republic," 
that  "  the  Celtic  element  from  the  earliest  ages 
had  always  been  keenly  alive  to  the  more  sensu- 
ous and  splendid  manifestations  of  the  devotional 
principle." 

Giving  over  the  vain  attempt  to  disentangle  fact 
from  fable,  in  the  earlier  accounts  of  the  emigra- 
tion of  these  people  from  Asia  into  Britain,  it  is  at 
least  certain  that  in  the  century  before  the  Chris- 
tian era  a  portion  of  the  Celtic  group  had  settled 
in  Britain;  and  when  Julius  Caesar  landed  (fifty- 
four  years  before  Christ)  Wales  and  Cornwall  and 
the  South  of  England  were  peopled  by  them. 

There  are  historians,  and  especially  in  our  own 
day,  who  have  attempted  to  find  in  the  religious 
rites  and  philosophy  of  the  Druids,  who  were  the 
priests  of  heathen  Britain,  certain  lines  of  provi- 
dential preparation  for  the  introduction  of  Chris- 
tianity. And  though  Lightfoot  does  not  hesitate 
to  say  that  "  the  nobler  aspect  of  the  Druidical 
system  has  been  exaggerated,"  there  certainly 
were  some  points  of  teaching,  eminently  their  doc- 
trine of  the  immortality  of  the  soul,  which  left  the 


10 


THE  CELTIC  CHURCH. 


people  who  held  it  upon  a  higher  plane  than  was 
attained  by  even  such  philosophers  as  Marcus  Au- 
relius,  or  by  the  religions  of  the  Roman  world. 

So  much  for  the  character  of  the  people.  If  we 
are  puzzled  about  the  date  and  circumstances  of 
the  first  population  of  Britain  by  the  Celts,  we 
shall  find  ourselves  even  more  at  sea  in  attempt- 
ing to  fix  the  precise  time  or  manner  of  the  intro- 
duction of  the  faith  of  Christ  among  them.  I 
suppose  it  may  be  taken  as  a  recognized  fact  to- 
day that  the  earliest  unquestionable  statement  of  the 
existence  of  Christianity  in  Britain  is  in  "  Tertullian 
Against  the  Jews,"  about  A.D.  207.  "  The  different 
nations  of  the  Gauls  and  the  portions  of  Britain 
inaccessible  to  the  Romans,  have  been  truly  con- 
quered for  Christ."  An  argument  of  certainly  in- 
genious plausibility,  I  think  one  may  almost  say 
of  possibility,  carries  us  back  thirty  years  further. 
The  Asiatic  mission  of  Pothinus  and  Irenaeus  to 
the  Church  in  Gaul  would  naturally  have  found 
vent  in  the  direction  of  Britain.  This  would  be 
about  the  year  176,  and  although  in  Irenaeus' 
enumeration  of  the  countries  in  which  the  one 
true  faith  was  professed  (in  his  book  "  Against  the 
Heresies")  no  specific  mention  is  made  of  Britain, 
it  is  not  impossible  that  he  included  the  Britons 
among  the  Celts  in  Gaul ;  more  possible  because 
in  the  list  of  the  Bishops  present  at  the  Council 
of  Aries  (A.D.  314)  the  three  British  Bishops  who 


THE  CELTIC  CHURCH. 


were  there  are  catalogued  among  the  Bishops  of 
Gaul.  There  is  still  another  possibility,  which  has 
in  it  the  ring  and  character  of  Apostolic  times, 
when  the  persecution  that  arose  about  Stephen 
scattered  the  disciples  to  become  ankppiokoyoi, 
"  sowers  of  the  word,"  in  the  various  countries  to 
which  they  fled  for  shelter.  It  is  not  impossible 
that  the  terrific  persecution,  under  the  Emperor 
Marcus  Aurelius  in  A.D.  177,  drove  Christians  from 
southern  Gaul  to  Britain,  who  carried  with  them 
the  message  of  the  Master,  to  which  they  became 
witnesses  in  life,  as  their  brethren  at  Vienne  and 
Lyons  had  been  witnesses  for  it  unto  death  ;  and 
so  the  blood  of  Gallican  martyrs  became  the 
seed  of  the  British  Church.  What  Mr.  Pryce  calls 
"  the  surprising  ductility  with  which  Christianity 
crept  through  the  various  pores  of  the  world  "  may 
perhaps  after  all  be  the  true  account  of  the  intro- 
duction of  the  religion  of  Christ  into  Britain.  Put 
two  things  together.  Remember  the  statement 
which  Tertullian  made  of  his  own  time  (which  was 
true  long  before  his  time)  that  "  Christians  filled 
every  place,  cities,  fortresses  and  towns,  and  even 
the  camps."  And  remember  that  in  A.D.  61, 
twenty  years  after  London  was  founded,  it  was  a 
flourishing  town,  with  a  commerce  that  connected 
the  Thames  with  the  Mediterranean  ;  and  it  is 
quite  possible  that,  as  in  southern  Gaul  so  in  Brit- 
ain, the  truth  was  brought  early,  and  found  lodg- 


THE  CELTIC  CHURCH. 


ment  and  growth  before  the  first  century  was 
over. 

"Thus,"  Bishop  Lightfoot  says,  "in  the  age 
when  St.  Paul  preached,  a  native  of  Galatia  spoke  a 
language  essentially  the  same  with  that  which  was 
current  in  the  southern  part  of  Britain.  And  if 
(to  indulge  a  passing  fancy)  we  picture  to  our- 
selves one  of  his  Asiatic  converts  visiting  the  far 
West  to  barter  the  hair-cloths  of  his  native  coun- 
try for  the  useful  metal  which  was  the  special  pro- 
duct of  this  island,  we  can  imagine  that,  finding  a 
medium  of  communication  in  a  common  language, 
he  may  have  sown  the  first  seeds  of  the  Gospel, 
and  laid  the  foundations  of  the  earliest  Church  in 
Britain." 

It  is  impossible  to  pass  in  silence  over  the  well 
authenticated  facts  of  the  story  of  the  Church's 
early  life  and  work  in  Gaul.  There  is  not  wanting 
authority  for  the  opinion  that  when  St.  Paul  wrote 
to  Timothy  that  "  Crescens  had  gone  to  Galatia" 
it  was  the  European  and  not  the  Asiatic  country 
to  which  he  went.  At  any  rate  the  Churches  at 
Vienne  claim  him  as  their  founder.  This  of  course 
would  place  the  date  of  the  first  planting  of  Chris- 
tianity in  Gaul  not  long  after  the  middle  of  the 
first  century.  And  it  is  true  that  Pothinus,  a 
friend  of  Polycarp,  who  was  St.  John's  disciple, 
became  Bishop  of  Lyons;  and  that  Irenaeus  be- 
came the  great  preacher  to  the  native  population 


THE  CEL  TIC  CHURCH. 


13 


of  this  city.  Leaving  to  others  the  ministry  of 
the  wealthier  and  more  cultivated  Greek  and  Ro- 
man population,  he  set  himself  to  the  study  of 
the  Celtic  language  that  they  might  hear  "  in  their 
own  tongue  the  wonderful  works  of  God."  And 
the  pathetic  story  of  the  persecution  which  over- 
whelmed those  converts  in  Lyons  and  Vienne,  as 
they  told  it  themselves  in  their  letter  to  their 
brethren  in  Asia  Minor,  proves  the  reality  of  their 
conversion  and  the  constancy  of  their  faith. 

We  do  not  forget  either  the  Provincial  Synod 
at  Lyons,  with  twelve  Bishops  present,  in  the  mid- 
dle of  the  second  century  ;  nor  the  fact  that  it  was 
on  his  march  through  Gaul  that  Constantine  em- 
braced Christianity.  The  same  century  produced 
the  great  Bishop  of  Tours,  St.  Martin,  "  the  Apostle 
of  Gaul,"  whose  fame  and  influence  are  commemo- 
rated alike  by  St.  Ninian's  "  Candida  Casa,"  or 
Whitehouse,  the  stone  church  built  at  what  is 
known  as  Whithern  in  Scotland  ;  and  by  the  oldest 
surviving  church  in  England,  St.  Martin's  in  Can- 
terbury, which  still  retains  in  its  walls  some  of  the 
old  Roman  bricks  of  the  chapel  in  which  Ethel- 
bert's  Queen  Bertha  worshipped  ;  and  where  Ethel- 
bert  permitted  Augustine  and  his  monks  to  worship 
with  her;  and  where,  on  Whitsunday  in  A.D.  597, 
he  was  himself  baptized,  the  first  of  the  Saxon 
kings  to  embrace  the  religion  of  Britain,  which  for 
nearly  five  centuries  had  existed  in  the  kingdom. 


14 


THE  CEL  TIC  CHURCH. 


I  really  think  that  this  Galatian  element  is  per- 
haps the  most  vital  feature  in  the  Celtic  story. 
It  is  most  important  to  recognize  that  so  far  as 
the  grace  of  Orders  is  concerned,  it  matters  not 
one  whit  whether  they  came  through  Rome  or 
from  the  East.  No  error  of  doctrine,  no  vicious- 
ness  of  life  affects  in  the  faintest  degree  the  valid- 
ity of  transmitted  grace,  any  more  than  the  moss 
that  greens  the  outside,  or  the  decay  that  softens 
the  bark,  of  wooden  troughs  vitiates  the  clearness 
of  the  water,  or  destroys  the  purity  of  the  spring 
from  which  the  water  flows.  But  it  is  so  striking 
as  to  seem  at  least  providential  that,  as  the  first  in- 
troduction of  Christian  belief  and  life  leaked  over 
from  Gaul,  according  to  the  earliest  genuine  rec- 
ords ;  so  the  Saxon  line,  which  twined  its  authority 
in  with  the  old  Apostolic  network,  came  from  the 
Bishop  of  Aries  in  France,  whose  descent  is  Ephe- 
sine  and  so  Eastern  ;  and  Johannine  and  not  *Ro- 
man  at  all. 

We  have  noticed  Tertullian's  statement  in  the 
beginning  of  the  third  century,  of  the  subjugation 
of  the  remote  parts  of  this  island  to  Christ.  Ori- 
gen,  writing  in  A.D.  239,  argues  for  the  greatness 
of  the  Christian  religion  from  its  diffusion  through 
the  whole  world,  and  specifies,  in  evidence,  the 

*  I  do  not  say  Petrine;  because  even  if  it  were  Roman,  it 
would  have  no  special  relation  to  St.  Peter,  who  was  never 
Bishop  of  Rome. 


THE  CELTIC  CHURCH. 


15 


fact  that  it  had  reached  the  Moors  and  "  the  Brit- 
ons who  are  divided  from  our  world."  And  there 
is  similar  testimony  from  Eusebius  and  Hilary. 
Arthur  Haddan,  in  his  remarkable  review  called 
"The  Churches  of  the  British  Confession,"  is  in- 
clined to  consider  that,  "  during  all  these  early 
centuries  and  almost  until  the  departure  of  the 
Romans,  Christianity  was  confined  to  Roman  set- 
tlements and  Romanized  natives,  and  limited  to 
the  Roman  provinces  of  Britain  with  no  national 
strength  or  character ;  only  a  feeble  reflection  of 
its  Gallic  sister  across  the  channel,  from  whom  al- 
most certainly  it  was  derived."  But  the  difficulty 
of  either  accepting  or  rejecting  this  conclusion  is 
found  in  the  acknowledgment  by  Gildas,  the  first 
British  historian,  that  "  if  there  were  any  early 
records  of  his  own  country,  they  had  been  de- 
stroyed in  the  fires  or  had  been  conveyed  by  his 
exiled  countrymen  to  foreign  lands."  He  wrote 
in  576  ;  and  through  and  from  his  statement  we  are 
able  to  pass  on  sure  and  safe  grounds.  The  Roman 
occupation  of  Britain  lasted  for  about  three  hun- 
dred years.  The  Picts  were  never  subdued  by  Ro- 
man arms.  And  when,  in  the  opening  of  the  fifth 
century,  the  Roman  legions  were  withdrawn  from 
Britain,  the  land  was  given  over  to  three  separate 
invaders,  the  Picts  from  the  Highlands,  the  Scots, 
as  they  were  called,  from  Ireland  ;  and  the  Saxon 
pirates.    Attacked  on  four  sides,  north,  west,  east 


1 6 


THE  CELTIC  CHURCH. 


and  south,  the  problem  remained  unsolved  for 
nearly  a  century,  as  to  what  race  should  finally 
dominate  the  island.  The  hiring  of  mercenaries, 
the  pitting  of  barbarian  against  barbarian,  the  slow 
surrender,  the  bitter  resistance,  the  hiding  behind 
the  fastnesses  of  mountains  and  the  thicknesses  of 
woods,  all  these  are  matters  of  well  known  history. 
And  at  last  Saxons  and  Jutes  having  only  par- 
tially conquered,  the  outcome  was  that  the  Engles 
became  the  final  conquerors  and  Britain  really  be- 
came England.  "  The  new  England  may  well  be 
called  a  heathen  country."  Green,  in  his  "  History 
of  the  English  People,"  puts  most  strongly  the  re- 
lation of  these  events  to  the  history  of  the  Celtic 
Church. 

"  Before  the  landing  of  the  English  in  Britain, 
the  Christian  Church  stretched  in  an  unbroken 
line  across  western  Europe  to  the  farthest  coasts 
of  Ireland.  The  conquest  of  Britain  by  the  pagan 
English  thrust  a  wedge  of  heathendom  into  the 
heart  of  this  great  communion,  and  broke  it  into 
two  unequal  parts.  On  the  one  side  lay  Italy,  Spain 
and  Gaul,  whose  Churches  owed  obedience  to  and 
remained  in  direct  contact  with  the  See  of  Rome. 
On  the  other  side,  practically  cut  off  from  the 
general  body  of  Christendom,  lay  the  Church  of 
Ireland.  While  the  vigor  of  Christianity  in  Italy 
and  Gaul  and  Spain  was  exhausted  in  a  bare  strug- 
gle for  life,  Ireland  which  remained  unscourged  by 


THE  CELTIC  CHURCH. 


17 


invaders,  drew  from  its  conversion  an  energy  such 
as  it  has  never  known  since.  For  a  time  it  seemed 
as  if  the  course  of  the  world's  history  was  to  be 
changed,  as  if  the  older  Celtic  race  that  the  Roman 
and  German  had  swept  before  them,  had  turned 
to  the  moral  conquest  of  their  conqueror;  as  if 
Celtic  and  not  Latin  Christianity  was  to  mould 
the  destinies  of  the  Churches  of  the  West."  And 
Haddan  says,  "  Church  historians  cannot  be  far 
wrong  in  saying  that  a  mere  turn  of  the  scale,  hu- 
manly speaking,  prevented  the  establishment  in 
the  seventh  century  of  an  aggregate  of  Churches 
in  north-western  Europe,  looking  for  their  centre 
to  the  Irish  and  British  Churches,  and  as  entirely 
independent  of  the  papacy  as  are  the  English- 
speaking  Churches  of  the  present  day.  The  Celtic 
skull  and  the  Celtic  temperament,  we  are  told  by 
naturalistic  ethnologists,  are  perforce  Romanist. 
We  commend  the  fact  to  notice,  that  the  largest 
and  most  powerful  company  of  European  ortho- 
dox Churches,  not  paying  obedience  to  the  Roman 
See  at  any  period  anterior  to  the  Reformation, 
consisted  of  the  entire  aggregate  of  the  Celtic 
Churches  existing  at  the  time,  with  the  addition  of 
a  body  of  Celtic  missions  among  Teutonic  tribes." 
That  turn  of  the  scale,  it  is  plain  to  see,  was  due  in 
the  first  place  to  the  lack  of  any  real  unity  among 
the  inhabitants  of  the  British  islands,  who  were 
divided  into  separate  and  contending  races  and 


1 8 


THE  CEL  TIC  CHURCH. 


tribes  ;  and  to  their  entire  severance  from  southern 
Christendom,  which  led  them  to  look  rather  to 
Jerusalem  and  the  Holy  Land  than  to  Rome. 
And  while,  as  we  shall  see  later  on,  great  mission- 
ary enterprises  were  undertaken  into  the  lands 
across  the  sea,  the  wave  of  Christianity  was  con- 
stantly passing  to  and  fro,  as  Ireland  gives  St. 
Columba  to  Scotland,  and  Scotland  gives  St.  Pat- 
rick to  Ireland  ;  and  as  the  religion  of  the  Master, 
beaten  back  from  one  point  established  itself 
among  the  inhabitants  of  some  remoter  portion 
of  the  land.  It  was  as  though  a  full  spring  disap- 
peared from  one  locality  to  pour  its  waters  in  an- 
other place ;  as  though  the  sunlight  hidden  by  some 
overhanging  cloud  left  the  centre  of  a  landscape  in 
shade,  to  dispense  its  glory  on  some  distant  scene. 

I  hope  I  have  at  least  guarded  against  three 
popular  mistakes.  One,  that  unless  St.  Paul  went 
to  Britain,  there  is  no  evidence  whatever  as  to  the 
source  from  which  it  derived  its  Christianity  ;  one, 
that  if  there  is  no  evidence  of  the  source,  then 
there  is  no  proof  that  Christianity  existed  in  Great 
Britain  in  the  earlier  days  ;  and  one,  that  the  first 
planting  of  the  religion  of  Christ  dates  from  the 
landing  at  Canterbury  of  the  Monk  Augustine  in 
A.D.  597. 

While  on  the  one  hand  we  recognize  that  Cel- 
tic Christianity,  overborne  by  the  wave  of  English 
heathenism,  was  hardly  to  be  found  in  southern 


THE  CELTIC  CHURCH. 


England  ;  yet  let  us  remember  that  the  queen 
who  welcomed  Gregory's  messenger  with  such 
cordial  affection,  and  won  him  access  to  her  hus- 
band, was  a  descendant  herself  from  one  of  those 
Christian  kings  in  the  line  of  Clovi's  of  France ; 
so  that  even  when  the  tide  of  Italian  missions 
touched  the  English  coast,  it  met  the  wave  of 
Galatian  Christianity ;  and  the  two  mingling  into 
one  made  the  Christianity  of  Great  Britain,  like 
its  civilization,  composite,  but  with  its  dominant 
element  still  Galatian  and  Eastern.  And  I  hope 
that  I  have  not  only  cleared  up  the  confusion  in 
so  many  minds  on  this  subject,  but  that  I  have 
impressed  my  hearers  with  the  fact  that  from 
whatever  source  derived,  and  to  whatever  space 
extended,  the  Celts  of  the  first  century  had  heard 
of  and  trusted  in  Christ  ;  that  probably  this  was 
true  not  merely  of  Roman  settlements  and 
Romanized  natives,  but  of  the  Celts  themselves, 
speaking  the  common  language,  and  learning  in 
it  the  common  faith  of  their  brethren,  first  in 
Asiatic,  and  then  in  European  Gaul ;  that  while 
authenticated  history  hardly  begins  until  the  time 
of  Gildas,  indisputable  evidence  from  the  writings 
of  the  third  century  prove  that  Christianity  was 
certainly  in  Britain  a  well  known  and  established 
fact,  in  the  century  before  ;  that  the  organization 
of  the  Church  was  Apostolic  in  its  government 
by  Bishops,  if  not  in  its  founding  by  one  of  the 


20 


THE  CELTIC  CHURCH. 


Apostles ;  that  it  was  Catholic,  in  that  it  derived 
its  orders  from,  and  held  communion  with,  the 
Church  of  Christ  in  Jerusalem  and  Italy  and 
Spain  and  France  ;  that  its  Bishops  were  recog- 
nized, as  representing  an  organized  and  indepen- 
dent national  Church,  at  Aries  and  Sardica,  if  not 
at  Nicea;  that  it  was  so  filled  with  the  spirit  of 
Christ  and  His  Apostles,  that  it  perpetually  set 
itself  to  conquer  for  Christ  its  barbarous  and 
heathen  conquerors ;  that  it  was  finally,  and  most 
strongly,  established  in  Ireland,  because  Ireland 
was  free  from  the  scourge  of  perpetual  invasions  ; 
and  that  we  must  recognize  as  thorough  an  inde- 
pendence in  the  Church  of  the  Scots  (as  the  Irish 
people  were  called  then)  and  the  Celts  and  the 
Britons,  as  exists  to-day  in  the  English  Church, 
the  successor  of  the  Anglo-Saxon  organization, 
which,  in  the  eleventh  century,  absorbed  into  it- 
self the  national  and  ecclesiastical  organizations 
of  Scotland,  Ireland,  England  and  Wales. 

May  I  say  one  more  thing  about  the  character 
of  this  old  Mother  Church  of  ours?  Namely, 
that  it  vindicated  alike  its  catholicity,  its  holi- 
ness, its  unity,  and  its  Apostolic  origin  by  its 
orthodoxy.  Here  again  two  facts  are  constantly 
overstated  and  misunderstood.  It  is  true  that 
certain  British  Bishops,  when  nearly  all  Christen- 
dom was  touched  with  the  plague  of  Arianism, 
signed  a  semi-Arian  creed  at  Ariminum  in  359; 


THE  CEL  TIC  CHURCH. 


21 


and  it  is  true  that  Pelagius  was  a  Briton  and  that 
his  heresy  spread  for  a  while  among  his  fellow- 
countrymen.  But  we  have  distinguished  and 
venerable  evidence,  from  St.  Hilary,  St.  Athana- 
sius,  St.  Chrysostom  and  St.  Jerome,  in  the  earlier 
centuries  (I  mean  the  fourth  and  fifth),  that  the 
British  Church,  in  the  language  of  St.  Athanasius, 
"  had  signified  their  adhesion  to  the  doctrine  of 
the  Nicene  Creed."  Montalembert  allows,  with 
regard  to  primitive  Ireland,  what  is  I  think  proven 
in  regard  to  the  whole  Celtic  Church,  that  "  it  was 
profoundly  and  unchangeably  Catholic  in  doc- 
trine, but  separated  from  Rome  in  various  points 
of  discipline  and  liturgy." 

It  is  one  of  the  grave  mistakes  into  which  men 
have  been  drawn  in  the  heat  of  controversy  to  call 
the  Celtic  Church  anti-Roman.  The  very  title  is 
an  anachronism.  Founded  and  flourishing  in  the 
days  when  the  Bishops  of  Rome  claimed  only 
local  and  suburbicarian  jurisdiction,  she  was,  like 
every  ancient,  independent  Church,  zw-Roman. 
At  the  time  of  her  founding,  Rome  itself  was 
virtually  a  Greek  Church.  The  fact  of  the  exist- 
ence, propagation,  and  extension  of  the  Celtic 
Church,  through  centuries  when  communication 
with  southern  Europe  was  impossible ;  of  her 
Bishops  recognizing  and  recognized  by,  the  Church 
in  Rome  as  everywhere  else ;  and  of  their  stub- 
born refusal  to  submit  to  any  intrusive  jurisdic- 


22 


THE  CELTIC  CHURCH. 


tion,  are  simply  illustrations  of  that  traditional 
independence  which  for  so  many  centuries  was 
universal  in  the  world.  That  the  old  See  of 
central  and  civil  prominence  was  held  in  honour, 
but  second  to  Jerusalem  ;  that  Bishops,  in  many 
instances,  got  consecration  and  mission,  but  not 
jurisdiction  from  the  Bishop  of  Rome,  is  undoubt- 
edly true:  but  no  one  can  read  the  story  of  the 
attitude  of  Columbanus  toward  Boniface  IV.,  or 
of  the  British  Bishops  who  held  conferences 
with  St.  Augustine,  and  not  realize  the  absolute 
autonomy  of  the  Church,  whose  Bishops  wrote 
such  words  and  maintained  such  an  attitude  to- 
ward Rome. 

Although  their  connection  is  more  in  subject 
than  in  time,  let  me  put  these  two  things  together 
here.  Columbanus,  one  of  the  Irish  saints  at  the 
end  of  the  sixth  century  (he  was  Bishop  of  Lein- 
ster),  writes  to  Boniface  IV.  lamenting  over  "  the 
infamy  of  the  chair  of  St.  Peter  in  consequence 
of  disputes  at  Rome,"  urges  him  to  "  be  more  on 
the  watch  and  to  cleanse  the  See  from  all  error  "  ; 
says  that  "  many  persons  entertained  doubts  about 
the  purity  of  his  faith  "  ;  allows  "  Rome  to  be 
the  chief  city  of  the  world  and  of  the  Church, 
save  the  especial  prerogative  of  Jerusalem  "  ;  and 
upbraids  the  Roman  Church  "  for  claiming  a 
greater  authority  and  power  than  was  possessed 
by  other  Churches  "  ;  all  in  language  which  can, 


THE  CEL  TIC  CHURCH. 


23 


by  no  excess  of  ingenuity  be  reconciled  with  any 
claim  of  papal  supremacy.  And  the  attitude  of 
the  British  Bishops  toward  Augustine  at  the  two 
conferences,  due  in  part  to  national  antagonism 
and  to  an  unwillingness  to  recognize  a  Pope  at 
home  in  Canterbury,  nevertheless  proves  that  no 
such  claim  of  authority,  as  Rome  made  in  Eng- 
land in  the  later  years  and  makes  now  over  all  the 
Churches  in  the  world,  was  known  or  acknowl- 
edged in  Britain.  In  the  same  way,  I  think,  too 
much  has  been  made  as  to  the  difference  between 
Britain  and  the  rest  of  the  Western  churches  in 
regard  to  the  keeping  of  Easter.  About  the  time 
of  the  council  of  Nice  the  practice  of  the  British 
Church  harmonized  with  that  of  the  entire  West- 
ern Church  ;  but  after  that  time  the  Britons, 
probably  as  Bede  says,  "  because  the  synodal 
decrees  about  the  time  of  the  observance  of 
Easter  did  not  reach  them  owing  to  their  distant 
position,"  fell  into  the  observance  of  a  different 
day,  by  adhering  to  the  old  cycle  known  as  that 
of  Sulpicius  Severus.  It  is  a  mistake  to  imagine 
that  they  adopted  the  quarto-deciman  theory,  or 
that  their  position  grew  out  of  their  Eastern 
Galatian  source  and  sympathies ;  but  the  mere 
fact  that  they  went  on  for  so  many  centuries  inde- 
pendently of,  and  differing  from,  the  Roman  use, 
shows  that  no  connection  between  England  and 
Italy  was  needful  to  keep  up  the  orthodoxy  or 


24 


THE  CELTIC  CHURCH. 


the  order  of  the  Church.  What  Maclear  says  of 
the  conquests  of  Caesar  is  true  in  a  deeper  ecclesi- 
astical sense.  He  is  speaking  of  the  fact  that  Ire- 
land and  Scotland  were  exempt  from  the  invasion 
of  the  soldiers  of  Caesar,  and  he  says  "  Britain 
never  became  quite  Roman  as  Gaul  did  ;  and  Ire- 
land was  never  Roman  at  all."  Would  that  the 
latter  were  true  now;  and  thank  God  for  the 
strong  statement  we  can  make  to-day  about  Eng- 
land. 

The  other  differences  were  as  to  the  method  of 
administering  baptism,  which  may  have  been  and 
probably  was,  that  they  baptized  with  the  single 
immersion  against  the  Apostolic  canon ;  and  the 
consecration  of  Bishops  by  a  single  Bishop. 

Surely  it  cannot  but  be  providential  that  in  so 
many  ways, — at  the  beginning,  in  times  of  national 
severance,  in  times  of  restoration, — the  English 
Church,  from  British  days  to  our  own,  has  been 
independent  of,  even  when  in  full  communion 
with,  the  Roman  See ;  in  Galatian  origin  ;  in  Gal- 
lican  orders  and  liturgy ;  in  the  strong  link  twice 
fastened,  through  Lyons  and  Aries,  with  Ephe- 
sus  and  St.  John,  and  in  the  striking  facts  that 
Ninian,  her  first  great  missionary,  and  Aidan,  the 
restorer  of  St.  Augustine's  ruined  work,  and 
Germanus,  the  defender  of  the  faith  against  Pela- 
gius,  all  came,  with  no  mission  and  no  authority 
from  Rome. 


THE  CELTIC  CHURCH. 


25 


"It  happens  not  unfrequently  that  history  is 
written  best  in  the  lives  of  the  men  who  made  it. 
Among  the  crowd  and  confusion  of  events  as 
they  melt  into  the  indistinctness  of  distance,  here 
and  there  stand  out  solitary  and  conspicuous  fig- 
ures, who  were  in  part  the  incarnation  of  the 
spirit  of  the  age,  and  in  part  the  spirit  that  in- 
formed the  age.  I  think  one  may  really  learn  more, 
of  some  distinct  and  most  characteristic  periods 
of  Celtic  Church  history,  in  the  lives  of  St.  Patrick 
and  St.  Columba,  of  St.  Aidan  and  St.  Margaret, 
both  associated  with  Columba,  than  in  almost  any 
other  way.  Of  course  I  am  passing  over  many 
prominent  and  attractive  names  which  loom  out 
from  the  darkness  of  the  pagan  background,  and 
the  almost  darker  confusion  of  legend  and  ro- 
mance; like  St.  Ninian,  a  British  Christian,  conse- 
crated by  St.  Martin  of  Tours,  who  became  the 
Aoostle  of  the  Southern  Picts,  and  built  the  stone 
church  at  Galway,  in  the  early  part  of  the  fifth 
century  ;  St.  Kentigern,  who  followed  in  Ninian's 
footsteps,  and  is  known  in  Glasgow  as  St.  Mungo, 
because  of  "  the  gentleness  and  sweetness  "  of  his 
nature ;  of  St.  Aidan,  who,  Bishop  Lightfoot  says, 
was  the  true  Apostle  of  England,  because  God 
gave  to  him  the  privilege  of  restoring  what  was 
left  of  "  St.  Augustine's  Mission  in  England." 
Many  others  there  are  of  whom  one  may  say  with 
St.  Paul  that "  the  time  would  fail  him  to  tell."  But 


26  THE  CELTIC  CHURCH. 

the  four  names  that  I  have  mentioned  have  such 
clear  personality,  and  cover  such  important  periods 
of  history  that  they  may  be  well  considered  as 
representatives  of  their  time. 

The  story  of  St.  Patrick  comes  to  us  beset  and 
surrounded  with  peculiar  difficulties.    Bcde,  who  ' 
records  the  coming  of  Palladia,  the  first  Bishop 
sent  to  "  the  Scots  believing  in  Christ,"  is  absolute- 
ly silent  concerning  St.  Patrick.    It  is  to  be  noted 
here  first,  that  the  Scots  were  the  people  of  Ire- 
land ;  and  that  the  historian's  statement  that  "they 
believed  in  Christ  "  recognizes  the  existence  of 
Christianity  there  before  he  came.    And  it  is  fur- 
ther to  be  recognized  that  Patrick  came  apparently 
without  any  commission  from  the  then  Pope  Celes- 
tine.    Columbanus,  the  Bishop  of  Leinster  (which 
St.  Ninian  founded)  never  alludes  to  him  at  all ;  and 
no  single  writer  before  the  eighth  century  makes 
more  than  passing  mention  of  him  ;  and  makes  no 
reference  whatever  to  the  story  of  Marianus  Scotus 
(who  died  in  1084)  that  "after  preaching  for  sixty 
years,  St.  Patrick  converted  the  whole  island  of 
Ireland  to  the  faith."    At  the  same  time,  St.  Pat- 
rick's "  Confession,"  as  it  is  called,  and  his  curious 
letter  to  Coroticus  (both  of  which  are  counted 
genuine)  give  evidence  of  the  fact  and  reality  of 
his  mission,  and  tell  the  leading  particulars  of  his 
life. 

He  was  born  about  387,  not  only  of  Christian 


THE  CELTIC  CHURCH. 


27 


parentage,  but  his  father  was  a  Deacon  and  his 
grandfather  a  Priest.  He  was  twice  taken  captive 
by  the  pagans  and  carried  to  Ireland,  where  he 
lived  in  captivity  and  was  employed  in  tending 
sheep.  Earnest  and  enthusiastic  in  his  nature,  he 
dwelt  much  in  his  solitary  life  upon  religious  mat- 
ters and  especially  upon  what  he  calls  "  the  dis- 
obedience of  his  fellow-countrymen  to  God,  and 
to  the  Priests  who  admonished  them  for  their  sal- 
vation." And  in  this  rapt  condition  of  feeling  he 
felt  his  vocation  to  the  Ministry,  coming  to  him  in 
a  vision  and  through  a  voice  which  he  could  not 
disobey.  "  In  the  dead  of  the  night,"  he  says,  "  I 
saw  a  man  coming  to  me,  bearing  innumerable 
epistles,  and  he  gave  me  one  of  them  and  I  read 
the  beginning  of  it  which  contained  the  words 
'  the  voice  of  the  Irish,'  and  I  heard  in  my  mind  the 
voice  of  those  who  were  near  the  wood  Folocut 
which  is  near  the  Western  Sea."  "  And  again  on 
another  night,  I  know  not,  God  knoweth,  whether 
it  was  within  me  or  near  me,  I  heard  distinctly 
words  which  I  could  not  understand  except  that 
at  the  end  of  what  was  said  there  was  uttered, 
'  He  who  gave  His  life  for  thee  is  He  who  speak- 
eth  with  thee.'  And  so  I  awoke  rejoicing." 
Against  the  entreaties  of  his  relatives  and  friends 
he  seems  to  have  gone  to  the  monastery  of  St. 
Martin  at  Tours,  and  studied  under  St.  Germanus 
and  afterward  at  Lerins,  whose  famous  school  is 
best  known  through  its  distinguished  scholar  Vin- 
centius. 


28 


THE  CELTIC  CHURCH. 


Although  his  consecration  has  been  connected 
with  the  then  Bishop  of  Rome,  Celestine,  there  is 
no  evidence  for  it,  and  the  most  natural  supposi- 
tion is  that  he  was  consecrated  Bishop  where  he 
was  ordained  Priest,  by  the  Bishops  of  Gaul. 

The  only  name  that  he  associates  with  his  mis- 
sion is  that  of  Victor,  the  man  who  appeared  to 
him  in  the  vision,  and  his  only  statement  of  him- 
self in  his  letter  to  Coroticus  is  "  Patricius,  a  sinner 
and  unlearned,  but  appointed  a  Bishop  in  Ireland." 
He  probably  landed  in  the  north  part  o'f  the 
County  of  Wicklow,  and  traversed  the  country,  in 
his  mission,  over  its  whole  extent. 

Stripped  of  what  Skene  calls  the  encrustations 
of  legendary  matters,  he  seems  to  have  ordained 
large  numbers  of  clergy,  of  whom  an  unusual  pro- 
portion were  Bishops  after  the  manner  of  that 
period.  Angus  the  Culdee  says  that  there  were 
"  three  hundred  and  fifty  Bishops  and  three  hun- 
dred presbyters"  ;  the  Bishops  many  of  them  being 
of  the  nature  of  the  Chorepiscopi.  Mr.  Skene  de- 
scribes it  as  "  a  congregational  and  tribal  Episco- 
pacy." And  the  fact  that  the  chief  king  of  Ireland 
remained  a  pagan  during  all  of  St.  Patrick's  mis- 
sion, goes  to  show  that  at  least  there  was  never  any 
national  adoption  of  Christianity.  He  established 
a  large  number  of  monastic  schools  and  devoted 
himself  with  great  courage  and  labour,  to  breaking 
down  alike  the  idolatrous  paganism  of  the  country, 


THE  CELTIC  CHURCH. 


29 


and  the  nature  worship  which  to  a  large  extent 
prevailed. 

One  of  the  most  striking  scenes  in  his  life  was 
his  bold  denunciation  of  the  chieftain  Coroticus, 
who,  though  calling  himself  a  Christian,  made  a 
descent  upon  the  Irish  coast  and  murdered  several 
of  the  natives,  and  carried  off  a  number  to  sell 
as  slaves.  And  the  Churches  which  he  and  his 
companions  founded  were  certainly  lights  in  the 
darkness  of  that  pagan  country,  which  not  only 
illuminated  it,  but  became  sources  and  centres  of 
light  to  the  whole  of  Western  Europe. 

What  is  known  as  his  "  Confession  "  is  really  a 
confessio  fidci,  the  avowal  of  his  faith,  and  a 
brief  memoir  of  his  life  and  work  in  Ireland.  It 
bears  strong  resemblance,  as  a  Creed,  to  the  symbol 
of  Nicea.  It  illustrates,  after  the  manner  of  the 
Benedicite,  the  superstitious  worship  of  nature 
which  he  attacked.  Plainly  recognizing  the  three 
orders  of  the  Ministry,  and  with  entire  simplicity 
and  freedom  from  any  of  the  extravagant  legends 
which  we  find  in  the  lives  which  other  people 
wrote  f/him  (the  earliest  of  which  dates  from  the 
ninth  century,  and  the  most  elaborate  of  which 
belongs  to  the  thirteenth  century),  it  gives  us  the 
story  of  an  earnest  and  holy  man,  fearless  and 
faithful  in  his  nature,  who  well  earned  for  himself 
in  the  best  sense  of  the  word,  the  title  of  the 
Apostle  of  Ireland.    The  probability  is  that  he  died 


3Q 


THE  CEL  TIC  CHURCH. 


on  the  17th  of  March,  A.D.  493.  And  his  true 
glory  consists  in  the  fact  that  he  was  enabled,  not 
to  found  the  Church  in  Ireland  because  he  found 
it  there,  nor  to  convert  the  whole  people  to  Chris- 
tianity ;  but  to  throw  into  the  feeble  current  of  its 
religious  life,  the  strong  warm  tide  of  his  own  per- 
sonal enthusiasm  and  his  intense  self-consecration  ; 
and  so  to  spread  and  swell  its  wave  of  holy  in- 
fluence, and  make  the  waste  places  of  a  pagan 
country,  green— a  very  emerald  isle— with  the  re- 
freshing streams  of  Christian  truth. 

Of  Columba  we  have,  in  the  authenticated 
writings  of  Adamnan,  a  picture  painted  by  his 
successor  after  an  interval  of  about  one  hundred 
years.  Columba  was  born  in  521  at  Gartan,  in 
the  County  Donegal.  The  slab  of  stone  on  which 
his  mother  lay  when  the  child  was  born  is  still 
shown,  and  one  cannot  fail  to  feel  the  picturesque 
pathos  of  certain  legends  connected  with  it.  Him- 
self a  wanderer  and  traveller  for  more  than  thirty 
years  of  his  life,  and  always  with  the  intensest 
love  and  longing  to  return  to  his  native  land  deep 
in  his  heart,  yet  this  stone  is  said  to  hold  a  sover- 
eign remedy  against  home-sickness ;  so  much  so, 
that  to-day  Irish  emigrants  flock  to  touch  this 
stone,  as  they  are  leaving  their  old  home  for  their 
new,  remembering  their  great  missionary.  We 
know  from  Columba's  life,  and  we  know  from  very 
touching  instances  of  the  Irish  emigrants  of  to- 


THE  CELTIC  CHURCH. 


31 


day,  how  little  the  long  travelling  and  the  wide 
parting  sever  the  hearts  of  either  from  their  first 
home. 

The  curious  legend  of  the  cause  that  gave  rise 
to  Columba's  banishment  is  at  least  characteristic 
of  the  saint  in  two  features :  his  love  of  learning, 
and  his  dominant,  fiery,  intense  zeal.  Angered 
first,  the  story  goes,  by  the  king's  decision  that  he 
must  return  to  the  Abbot  Finnian  the  stolen  copy 
of  the  Psalter  (  "  to  every  cow  her  calf;  "  to  every 
book  its  copy),  he  was  led  further  to  carry  out  his 
threatened  vengeance,  when  the  king  put  to  death 
a  young  prince  of  Connaught,  who  had  taken 
refuge  with  Columba  from  being  punished  for  an 
involuntary  murder.  He  executed  this  vengeance 
by  stirring  up  the  chieftains  of  his  own  tribe  and 
of  the  Connaught  clans  to  a  destructive  war,  in 
which  the  slaughter  was  enormous.  When  this 
fit  of  vengeance  had  passed  over  he  was  over- 
whelmed with  remorse,  alike  by  the  accusations 
of  his  conscience,  and  by  the  'judgment  of  his 
superiors,  and  set  himself  to  do  and  bear  a  double 
penance  :  first,  of  exile  from  his  beloved  country  ; 
and  next,  of  converting  to  Christianity  a  number 
of  pagans  equal  to  the  number  of  Christians  who 
had  been  slain  in  the  battle.  To  this  he  conse- 
crated his  life  with  a  reality  and  intenseness  which, 
even  when  we  have  discarded  the  extravagant 
stories  of  his  career,  win  for  him  a  glorious  title 


32 


THE  CEL  TIC  CHURCH. 


of  honour  in  the  roll  of  the  greatest  missionaries 
of  the  world. 

He  was  forty-two  years  old  when  he  set  sail 
with  twelve  companions,  in  the  year  563,  in  a  frail 
wicker  boat  covered  with  hide,  braving  the  stormy 
seas  and  dangerous  coasts,  and  landed,  we  are 
told,  first  on  the  little  island  of  Oronsay.  Climb- 
ing a  low  hill  near  the  shore,  he  found  the  coasts 
of  Ireland  still  in  sight ;  and,  either  because  he 
did  not  dare  to  trust  himself  within  view  of  his 
beloved  country,  or  because  he  felt  that  he  must 
entirely  separate  himself  from  it,  he  re-embarked 
and  landed  on  the  island  of  Iona.  Anything 
more  bleak  and  barren,  "  sullen  "  Montalembert 
calls  it,  than  this  little  strip  of  treeless,  flat  earth, 
cannot  be  imagined.  Rocky,  sandy,  unyielding, 
save  by  the  most  severe  toil,  of  pasture  for  flocks 
or  crops  for  men,  and  only  about  three  miles  and 
a  half  long  by  two  miles  wide,  it  became  the 
centre  of  some  of  the  widest-spread  and  most 
deeply-rooted  missionary  enterprises  of  the  Chris- 
tian world.  No  one  who  sets  foot  on  it  can  fail 
to  feel  that  Johnson's  language,  in  the  description 
of  his  tour  to  the  Hebrides,  is  only  too  weak. 
"We  were  now  treading,"  he  says,  "that  illus- 
trious island  which  was  once  the  luminary  of  the 
Caledonian  regions,  whence  savage  clans  and  rov- 
ing barbarians  derived  the  benefit  of  knowledge 
and  the  blessing  of  religion."     "That  man  is 


THE  CELTIC  CHURCH. 


33 


little  to  be  envied  whose  patriotism  would  not  be 
enforced  upon  the  plain  of  Marathon,  or  whose 
piety  would  not  grow  warmer  among  the  ruins  of 
Iona."  So  William  Croswell  sang,  in  Auburn,  fifty 
years  ago : 

"  The  pilgrim  at  Iona's  shrine 
Forgets  his  journey's  toil, 
As  faith  rekindles  in  his  breast 
On  that  inspiring  soil." 

To-day  the  halo  of  his  wonderful  name  hangs 
over  it  like  a  spell.  Only  the  very  earth  itself 
remains  to  tell  the  story  of  his  life,  his  journey- 
ings  and  his  death.  The  tombs  of  the  kings 
speak  of  its  widespread  fame  of  sanctity,  which 
brought  sovereigns  of  Norway  and  Spain,  as  well 
as  British  and  Celtic  kings,  there  for  burial ;  Dun- 
can among  the  rest  whom  Macbeth  murdered,  and 
who,  Shakespeare  says,  "  was  carried  to  Colmes 
Kill,  the  sacred  storehouse  of  his  predecessors, 
and  guardian  of  their  bones."  The  ruins  that  re- 
main of  the  ecclesiastical  buildings  are  connected 
with  another  of  the  sacred  and  poetical  characters 
of  Scottish  history,  St.  Margaret,  whose  beautiful 
and  beloved  memory  not  only  lives  in  the  old 
Abbey  of  Dunfermline,  but  is  associated  with  St. 
Columba  in  the  memories  of  the  Scottish  people  ; 
from  the  fact  that  in  1093  she  built  here  the 
Chapel  of  St.  Oran,  whose  walls  still  stand,  the 


54 


THE  CELTIC  CHURCH. 


successor  of  the  successive  churches  of  Columba, 
built  first  of  wattles,  then  of  wood,  which  had  to 
be  brought  to  the  island  from  the  neighboring 
shore.  The  Cathedral,  as  it  is  called,  though  it 
must  mark  some  holy  site,  and  though  its  ruins 
have  rung  with  the  holy  utterances  of  an  ancient 
and  uncorrupted  faith,  is  of  a  date  not  earlier 
than  the  twelfth  century.  It  is  claimed  that  Mc- 
Lean's Cross,  one  of  the  two  dignified  crosses 
which  have  survived  the  barbarous  prejudice  of 
Christian  men,  is  the  cross  which  Adamnan  names 
in  his  life  of  Columba,  as  associated  with  the  spot 
where  the  saint  rested  on  the  last  day  of  his  life, 
and  where  the  old  white  horse  of  the  monastery 
came  weeping  to  bid  him  farewell.  But  the  spot 
where  one  is  thrilled  intensely  with  the  magic 
power  of  this  remarkable  life,  is  the  hill  which  he 
climbed  that  Saturday  night  with  infinite  diffi- 
culty, and  where  since  then  hosts  of  pilgrims  have 
fulfilled  his  latest  prophecy,  delivered  there,  "  To 
this  spot,  although  small  and  mean,  shall  come 
not  only  kings  and  people  of  the  Scots,  but  the 
rulers  of  barbarous  and  remote  nations  with  their 
people."  Passing  from  this  place  to  the  monas- 
tery, he  could  only  half  finish  the  verse  of  the 
Psalter  he  was  copying,  "  They  that  seek  the  Lord 
shall  want  no  manner  of  thing  that  is  good,"  and 
on  that  Sunday  morning,  June  the  9th,  A.D.  597, 
having  hastened,  before  the  monks,  to  the  matins 


THE  CELTIC  CHURCH. 


35 


of  the  festival,  he  died  *  before  the  Altar,  among 
his  spiritual  children,  who  hurried  to  him  in  the 
dim  light  before  the  dawn,  to  get  his  last  blessing. 
The  voice  was  gone,  and  the  power  of  the  right 
hand  to  uplift  itself.  But  raised  by  another,  he 
made  with  it  the  sign  of  the  cross,  and  passed, 
with  a  benediction  in  his  heart,  to  receive  the  ben- 
ediction of  his  Lord. 

The  heroism  and  enterprise  of  this  man  are 
among  the  mightiest  records  of  missionary  advent- 
ures for  Christ  that  the  world  has  known.  Of  fifty- 
three  churches  and  monasteries  which  he  founded, 
and  which  have  left  their  traces  in  what  is  now 
called  Scotland,  thirty-two  were  in  the  Western 
Isles,  and  twenty-one  in  the  northern  country  of 
Caledonia,  which  remained  in  the  hands  of  the 

*  "  Such  was  the  life  and  death  of  the  first  great  Apostle 
of  Great  Britain,"  says  Montalembert.  "  We  have  lingered, 
perhaps  too  long,  on  the  grand  form  of  this  monk,  rising 
up  before  us  from  the  mists  of  the  Hebridean  Sea,  who,  for 
the  third  part  of  a  century,  spread  over  those  sterile  isles 
and  gloomy  shores  a  pure  and  fertilizing  light.  In  a  con- 
fused age  and  unknown  regions  he  displayed  all  that  is  the 
greatest  and  purest,  and,  it  must  be  added,  most  easily  for- 
gotten in  human  genius  :  the  gift  of  ruling  souls  by  ruling 
himself.  To  select  the  most  marked  and  graphic  incidents 
from  the  general  tissue  of  his  life,  and  those  most  fit  to  un- 
fold that  which  attracts  the  modern  reader— that  is,  his  per- 
sonal character  and  influence  upon  contemporary  events — 
from  a  world  of  minute  details  having  almost  exclusive 
reference  to  matters  supernatural,  has  been  no  easy  task. 


36 


THE  CELTIC  CHURCH. 


savage  Picts.  They  had  lapsed  after  St.  Ninian's 
death,  into  the  violence  of  their  ancestors ;  and 
when  Columba  virtually  bearded  their  king  in 
Inverness,  he  was  at  the  mercy  of  their  lawless 
ways,  and  exposed  himself  to  the  cruelty  of  the 
Druid  priests.  In  spite  of  the  dangers  of  the 
ocean  travel,  he  was  constantly  in  his  boat,  cross- 
ing and  re-crossing  the  dangerous  gulfs  and  bays, 
and  going  frequently  back  to  Ireland,  to  begin  or 
re-establish  religious  foundations.  He  shared  in 
all  the  labors  of  the  agriculture,  and  in  the  perils  of 
the  navigation,  of  his  fellow  monks  ;  and  it  is  no 
extravagance  of  language  to  say,  that  Iona  began 
under  him,  and  for  two  centuries  continued,  to  be 
"  the  nursery  of  Bishops,  the  centre  of  education, 
the  asylum  of  religious  knowledge,  the  point  of 

But  when  this  is  done,  it  becomes  comparatively  easy  to 
represent  to  ourselves  the  tall  old  man,  with  his  fine  and 
regular  features,  his  sweet  and  powerful  voice,  the  Irish 
tonsure  high  on  his  shaven  head,  and  his  long  locks  falling 
behind,  clothed  with  his  monastic  cowl,  and  seated  at  the 
prow  of  his  coracle,  steering  through  the  misty  archipelagoes 
and  narrow  lakes  of  the  north  of  Scotland,  and  bearing 
from  isle  to  isle  and  from  shore  to  shore,  light,  justice  and 
truth,  the  life  of  the  conscience  and  of  the  soul. 

"  He  was  at  the  same  time  full  of  contradictions  and  con- 
trasts—at once  tender  and  irritable,  rude  and  courteous, 
ironical  and  compassionate,  caressing  and  imperious,  grate- 
ful and  revengeful — led  by  pity  as  well  as  by  wrath,  ever 
moved  by  generous  passions,  and  among  all  passions  fired 
to  the  very  end  of  his  life  by  two,  which  his  countrymen 


I  HE  CELTIC  CHURCH. 


37 


union  among  the  British  Isles,  the  capitol  and  ne- 
cropolis of  the  Celtic  race." 

Alongside  of  the  wider  current  of  testimony 
which  this  whole  history  supplies  against  the  rec- 
ognition of  any  papal  claim  of  supremacy,  runs 
a  tide  of  equally  important  witness,  which  has 
been  strangely  perverted.  The  organization  of  the 
monastic  system  for  the  missionary  work  of  these 
early  missionaries,  and  the  absolute  power  of  the 
abbots,  have  given  rise  to  an  argument  for  a  Pres- 
byterian system  of  government  which  is  as  un- 
founded as  the  legendary  invention  of  Roman 
control.  That  the  inherent  and  essential  antago- 
nism between  monks  and  Bishops  began  from  the 
first,  may  be  taken  for  granted,  since  it  is  as  much 
a  proverb  as  that  which  grew  out  of  it  in  the 

understand  the  best,  the  love  of  poetry  and  the  love  of  his 
country.  Little  inclined  to  melancholy  when  he  had  once 
surmounted  the  great  sorrow  of  his  life,  which  was  his  exile ; 
little  disposed  even,  save  toward  the  end,  to  contemplation 
or  solitude,  but  trained  by  prayer  and  austerities  to  triumphs 
of  evangelical  exposition  ;  despising  rest,  untiring  in  mental 
and  manual  toil,  born  for  eloquence  and  gifted  with  a  voice 
so  penetrating  and  sonorous  that  it  was  thought  of  after- 
wards as  one  of  the  most  miraculous  gifts  that  he  had 
received  of  God  ;  frank  and  loyal,  original  and  powerful  in 
his  words  as  in  his  actions— in  cloister  and  mission  and 
parliament,  on  land  or  on  sea,  in  Ireland  as  m  Scotland; 
always  swayed  by  the  love  of  God  and  of  his  neighbor, 
whom  it  was  his  will  and  pleasure  to  serve  with  an  impas- 
sioned uprightness— such  was  Columba.    Besides  the  monk 


38 


THE  CELTIC  CHURCH. 


cathedrals  of  the  old  foundation,  namely,  the 
rivalry  between  Bishops  and  Deans.  But  nothing 
is  clearer,  in  the  whole  ancient  story,  than  the 
enormous  multiplication  of  Bishops,  the  recogni- 
tion of  the  Diocesan  Episcopate,  and  the  abso- 
lutely exclusive  reservation  of  the  right  of  confer- 
ring orders,  to  the  Bishops.  As  to  the  number  of 
Bishops,  the  story  of  St.  Patrick's  consecrations 
furnishes  sufficient  proof.  The  titles  of  the  Brit- 
ish Bishops  present  at  Aries,  Eborius  of  York, 
Restitutus  of  London,  and  Adelfius  of  Caerleon- 
on-Usk,  prove  that  the  historic  Episcopacy  was 
Diocesan.  It  remains  to  look  at  the  matter  of 
the  monasteries,  and  the  relation  of  Bishops  to 
them.  First  of  the  monasteries  themselves,  f  "  The 
monastic  character  of  the  Church  gave  a  peculiar 
stamp  to  her  missionary  work,  which  caused  her 
to  set  about  it  in  a  mode  well  calculated  to  im- 
press a  people  still  to  a  great  extent  under  the  in- 

and  the  missionary  there  was  in  htm  the  making  of  a  sailor, 
a  soldier,  poet,  and  orator.  To  us,  looking  back,  he  appears 
a  personage  as  singular  as  he  is  lovable,  in  whom  through 
all  the  mists  of  the  past  and  all  the  cross-lights  of  legends, 
the  man  may  still  be  recognized  under  the  saint— a  man 
capable  and  worthy  of  the  supreme  honor  of  holiness,  since 
he  knew  how  to  subdue  his  inclinations,  his  weakness,  his 
instincts,  and  his  passions,  and  to  transform  them  into  docile 
and  invincible  weapons  for  the  salvation  of  souls  and  the 
glory  of  God." — Monks  of  the  West. 
t  Skene,  Celtic  Churches. 


THE  CEL  TIC  CHURCH. 


39 


fluence  of  heathenism.  It  is  difficult  for  us  now  to 
realize  to  ourselves  what  such  pagan  life  really  was 
— its  hopeless  corruption,  its  utter  disregard  of  the 
sanctity  of  domestic  ties,  its  injustice  and  selfish- 
ness, its  violent  and  bloody  character ;  and  these 
characteristics  would  not  be  diminished  in  a  peo- 
ple who  had  been  partially  Christianized,  and  had 
fallen  back  from  it  into  heathenism.  The  monas- 
tic missionaries  did  not  commence  their  work,  as 
the  earlier  secular  Church  would  have  done,  by 
arguing  against  their  idolatry,  superstition,  and 
immorality,  and  preaching  a  purer  faith  ;  but  they 
opposed  to  it  the  antagonistic  characteristics  and 
purer  life  of  Christianity.  They  asked  and  ob- 
tained a  settlement  in  some  small  and  valueless 
island.  There  they  settled  down  as  a  little  Chris- 
tian colony,  living  under  a  monastic  rule  requiring 
the  abandonment  of  all  that  was  attractive  in  life. 
They  exhibited  a  life  of  purity,  holiness  and  self- 
denial.  They  exercised  chanty  and  benevolence, 
and  they  forced  the  respect  of  the  surrounding  pa- 
gans to  a  life,  the  motives  of  which  they  could  not 
comprehend,  unless  they  resulted  from  principles 
higher  than  those  their  pagan  religion  afforded 
them ;  and  having  won  their  respect  for  their 
lives  and  their  gratitude  for  their  benevolence, 
these  monastic  missionaries  went  among  them 
with  the  Word  of  God  in  their  hands,  and  preached 
to  them  the  doctrines  and  pure  morality  of  the 
Word  of  Life." 


4o 


THE  CEL  TIC  CHURCH. 


As  to  the  relation  of  the  Episcopate  to  these 
monastic  families,  it  is  of  course  true  that  the 
Bishop,  if  a  member  of  the  monastery,  was  sub- 
ject as  such  member  to  the  rule  and  authority  of 
the  abbot :  and  very  often  in  order  to  avoid  the 
restraint  of  Episcopal  authority  each  monastery 
had  its  own  Bishop,  sometimes  as  abbot,  some- 
times as  a  member  of  the  family.  Indeed  it  is 
said  that  Columba  was  only  ordained  Priest  by 
mistake,  it  having  been  intended  to  make  him 
Bishop.  But  of  the  recognition  of  the  separate 
Order,  alike  in  its  duties  and  its  dignities,  there  can 
be  no  question.  Orders  were  always  conferred  by 
the  Bishops  and  only  by  them.  When  the  Bishop 
officiated  as  celebrant  he  broke  the  Bread,  alone. 
And  Adamnan  records  the  fact,  that  on  one 
occasion,  when  a  Bishop  came  to  the  monastery 
at  Iona  not  avowing  his  rank,  St.  Columba  was 
greatly  distressed,  because  in  the  ignorance  of  his 
office,  the  respect  due  to  it  had  not  been  paid 
him. 

There  is  a  link  to  be  inserted  here,  both  in 
order  that  one  may  save  the  appearance  of  too 
wide  a  gap  in  the  sequence  of  the  story,  and  in 
order  to  assure  the  connection  between  the  Celtic 
missionaries  and  the  Church  of  England  of  to-day. 
There  are  good  and  sufficient  reasons  why  we 
have  less  distinct  detail  of  the  story  of  Chris- 
tianity in  central  and  southern  England,  than  in 


THE  CEL  TIC  CHURCH. 


4* 


Cornwall  or  Ireland  or  Wales  ;  because,  as  by  the 
ravages  of  fire  and  flood,  populations  were  wiped 
out  of  existence  or  banished  to  remoter  regions 
of  safety.  But  that  it  certainly  was  there,  with 
Churches,  congregations,  Dioceses  and  Bishops, 
down  to  the  time  when  the  Roman  legions  were 
withdrawn  from  Britain,  is  undoubted.  The  names 
of  the  Sees  and  the  Bishops  that  filled  them  are 
left  ;  and  we  have  the  relic  of  a  treatise  on  the 
Christian  life  written  by  Fastidius,  who  was 
Bishop,  probably  of  London,  at  this  time.  The 
founding  of  these  Churches  can  be  traced  to  no 
other,  than  the  same  source  from  which  Christian- 
ity found  its  way  to  the  other  portions  of  Britain 
After  this  time,  desolated  by  the  Picts  and  Scots, 
depleted  by  famine,  and  devastated  by  civil  wars 
among  the  native  chiefs,  Churton's  statement  is 
undoubtedly  true,  that  "  from  the  year  449,"  when 
the  Saxons  were  invited  by  the  Britons  to  pro- 
tect them  from  the  Picts  and  Scots,  "  Christianity 
began  to  disappear  from  the  most  important  and 
fruitful  provinces  of  Britain.  As  the  Saxons 
founded  one  after  another  of  their  petty  king- 
doms, they  destroyed  the  Churches,  and  the  Priests 
fled  before  them.  Some  found  refuge  in  the  colony 
of  Brittany,  and  others  escaped  to  the  borders  of 
Wales."  "  There  were  British  Bishops  still  dwell- 
ing in  the  invaded  parts,  as  long  as  there  were  any 
means  of  assembling  a  flock  of  Christians  around 


4? 


THE  CEL  TIC  CHURCH. 


them ; "  and  "  no  doubt,"  "  it  was  so  appointed 
by  God's  Providence,  that  Christianity  should  be 
planted  in  North  Britain,  at  the  very  time  when 
it  was  nearly  driven  out  at  the  south,  that  the 
means  of  its  restoration  might  be  at  hand.  '  The 
fact  is  that  the  story  of  St.  Alban  really  belongs 
here  as  evidence  of  the  early  and  earnest  existence 
of  Christianity  in  this  part  of  England,  for  the 
scene  of  his  life  and  death  was  at  the  town  of 
Verulam,  close  to  the  site  of  the  present  Abbey 
Church  which  bears  his  name. 

His  name  is  best  authenticated  in  the  history 
of  the  early  Church  in  England,  as  given  by  Bede, 
whose  account  is  based  partly  upon  legend  and 
partly  upon  the  history  of  Gildas.  It  has  at  least 
these  well  attested  facts  : 

His  martyrdom  occurred  during  the  persecution 
of  Diocletian.  Himself  a  pagan,  he  had  received 
into  his  house  a  Priest  flying  from  his  persecutors, 
and  was  so  impressed  by  the  faith  and  holiness  of 
the  man,  that  after  instruction  he  embraced  the 
Christian  faith.  When  the  soldiers  of  the  gov- 
ernor came  to  his  house,  instead  of  surrendering 
the  guest  whom  they  sought,  he  put  on  his  long 
cloak  and  was  led,  bound,  before  the  judge.  No 
entreaty  or  violence  could  induce  him  to  surrender 
his  faith,  and  he  was  finally  taken  to  the  bank  of 
a  river  and  put  to  death.  The  miracle  of  the  re- 
ceding water,  and  the  uprising  of  the  living  spring, 


THE  CELTIC  CHURCH. 


43 


and  the  conversion  of  the  executioner  are  well 
known,  and  it  is  curious  to  notice  that  in  the 
twelfth-century  version  of  his  story  the  long  cloak 
or  amphibalus,  in  which  the  martyr  was  clad,  is 
transformed  into  the  name  of  the  priest  in  whose 
stead  he  suffered,  and  becomes  St.  Amphibalus, 
who  is  said  to  have  been  martyred  later  on.  It  is 
notable  also,  not  only  that  the  first  British  martyr 
whose  name  comes  down  to  us  was  a  layman,  as 
the  first  martyr  of  the  Christian  Church  in  early 
times  was  a  Deacon  ;  but  that  his  name,  suggesting 
the  white  robe  of  the  saints,  is  preserved  both  in 
the  earlier  name  of  a  portion  of  Scotland,  and 
also  in  the  title  of  a  duke  belonging  to  the  Royal 
House  of  England  ;  and  I  am  glad  to  say,  through 
him,  in  the  Capital  City  of  this  great  State  (as  part 
of  its  historic  relation  to  colonial  days),  and  in 
the  Diocese  whose  Bishop  I  am  privileged  to  be. 

St.  Ninian's  mission  to  the  southern  Picts  is  an 
instance  of  the  way  in  which  the  tide  of  Chris- 
tian teaching  ebbed  to  and  fro  ;  for  he  went  from 
Cumbria,  of  whose  British  King  he  is  said  to  have 
been  the  son,  to  Galloway,  a  British  missionary  of 
the  British  Church. 

When  Augustine  landed,  there  can  be  no  ques- 
tion but  that,  owing  to  the  circumstances  which 
have  been  just  mentioned,  Christianity  in  south- 
ern England  was  the  shadow  of  a  name.  And 
when  after  his  death,  and  the  death  of  Ethelbert, 


44 


THE  CELTIC  CHURCH. 


the  progress  of  that  mission  was  rudely  arrested,  so 
that  nothing  was  left  of  it  except  in  Kent ;  when 
Paulinus,  who  had  labored  for  the  conversion  of 
the  Northumbrians,  returned  to  Rochester;  the 
providential  protection  of  the  old  centres  of  light 
among  the  Celts  fulfilled  its  gracious  purpose. 
St.  Aidan,  assisted  by  a  band  of  Columban  mis- 
sionaries, succeeded  in  restoring  Christianity 
among  the  Northumbrians,  abundantly  aided  by 
Oswald  the  king,  who  had  himself  in  early  youth 
found  refuge  in  Iona,  and  been  there  taught  Chris- 
tianity and  baptized.  Attended  by  the  king  him- 
self, who  acted  as  interpreter  to  the  Irish  mission- 
aries, Aidan,  wandering  on  foot,  preached  to  the 
peasants  of  Yorkshire  and  Northumbria.  And 
as  Oswald  gradually  extended  his  dominion  until 
he  was  once  called  "  Emperor  of  the  whole  of 
Britain,"  the  supremacy  of  the  Cross  was  asserted. 
After  Oswald's  death,  a  tide  of  heathenism  swept 
back  again,  but  it  was  not  for  long.  And  after 
the  death  of  Penda,  Central  England  was  won 
back  to  the  religion  of  Christ,  by  what  Green 
calls,  "  a  victory  for  Irish  Christianity."  St.  Aidan, 
St.  Chad  and  St.  Cuthbert  are  the  three  names,  all 
children  and  descendants  really  of  Columba,  most 
closely  associated  with  the  British  Christianity 
which  makes  the  link  in  that  age,  between  the 
Celtic  Churches  and  the  Church  of  England  of 
to-day. 


THE  CEL  TIC  CHURCH. 


45 


Rut  it  will  be  noticed,  meanwhile,  that  the  na- 
tive Church  which  resisted  Augustine's  claim  to 
foreign  jurisdiction,  was  represented  in  the  con- 
ference on  the  banks  of  the  Severn  by  nine 
Bishops,  seven  of  whom  came  from  Wales,  and 
two  from  Somerset  and  Cornwall.  "  We  are 
bound,"  the  Bishops  said,  "  to  serve  the  Church 
of  God,  and  the  Bishop  of  Rome,  and  every 
godly  Christian  as  far  as  helping  them  in  offices 
of  love  and  charity.  This  service  we  are  ready  to 
pay,  but  more  than  this  we  do  not  know  to  be 
due  to  him,  or  to  any  other.  We  have  a  primate 
of  our  own  who  is  to  oversee  us  for  God,  and  to 
keep  us  in  the  way  of  spiritual  life." 

I  pass  over,  not  thoughtlessly  or  with  indiffer- 
ence to  all  we  secured  out  of  it,  the  story  of 
Augustine's  mission  to  England.  There  can  be 
no  question  but  that  the  efforts  which  the  British 
Church  had  made  to  convert  the  invaders  of 
Britain  had  failed.  The  religion  of  central  and 
southern  England  at  the  end  of  the  sixth  cen- 
tury was  as  pagan  as  when  they  first  landed. 
The  old  story,  favorite  and  familiar  as  it  is,  of  the 
strong  purpose  of  Gregory  the  Great,  formed 
when  he  was  Abbot  of  the  Celian  Monastery,  and 
carried  out  after  he  became  Bishop  of  Rome, 
hardly  needs  repetition.  The  Angles,  who  were 
angels  coming  from  the  Province  of  Deira,  to  be 
rescued  "  de  ira  Dei"  that  so  their  king,  named 


46 


THE  CELTIC  CHURCH. 


Ella,  might  sing  Alleluia,  was  one  of  those  plays 
on  words  of  which  the  monks  were  very  fond, 
and  which  led  to  the  very  noble  work  of  Augus- 
tine's mission. 

Sometimes  I  think  that  Augustine's  real  great- 
ness has  been  merged  in  our  admiration  for  the 
great  Pope.  Really,  the  courage  with  which  he 
pursued  his  journey  in  spite  of  all  alarms  and 
threats,  the  dignity  with  which  they  presented 
themselves  before  King  Ethelbert,  chanting  their 
litany  to  the  Gregorian  tones,  and  then  the  quiet 
way  in  which  they  settled  down  to  their  half 
monastic  and  half  missionary  life  add  great  pict- 
uresqueness  to  the  story,  as  they  gave  great  power 
to  the  effect  of  their  work.  Bertha,  the  Queen, 
was  already  a  Christian,  and  it  was  to  the  little 
Church  where  her  own  Priest  celebrated  the  offices 
of  religion,  that  Augustine  and  his  followers  went 
for  their  worship. 

On  Whitsunday,  597,  the  King  was  baptized, 
and  on  the  following  Christmas  day  it  is  said  that 
ten  thousand  English  converts  received  the  holy 
sacrament  of  Baptism.  Augustine  brought  with 
him,  undoubtedly,  the  belief  which  was  growing 
more  and  more  on  the  Italian  Church  in  his  time, 
that  all  Bishops  and  Churches  owed  allegiance  to 
the  See  of  Rome ;  and  he  found  steady  and  stern 
resistance  on  the  part  of  all  the  British  Bishops 
and  Christians  to  this  claim,  or  to  any  demand 


THE  CELTIC  CHURCH. 


47 


that  he  should  be  recognized  as  set  over  them. 
That  resistance  lasted  on  and  on,  involving  ques- 
tions not  merely  of  the  keeping  of  Easter,  but  of 
the  method  of  Baptism,  and  the  whole  matter  of 
jurisdiction.  And  while  in  obedience  to  Gregory's 
large-minded  instructions,  as  to  the  introduction 
of  the  Gallican  use,  Augustine  yielded  in  regard 
to  the  liturgies,  he  remained  firm  in  his  claim  of 
jurisdiction  over  the  British  Churches  ;  and  the 
result,  due  partly  to  insular  independence,  partly 
to  national  pride,  partly  to  ecclesiastical  convic- 
tion and,  through  all,  to  the  Providence  of  God, 
was  a  schism  between  the  British  and  the  English 
Churches. 

It  is  a  wonderful  fact,  that  when,  owing  to  the 
relapse  into  paganism  of  Ethelbert's  son  when  he 
came  to  the  throne,  and  to  a  similar  reaction  among 
the  eastern  Saxons,  all  that  Augustine  had  gained 
was  lost  after  his  death,  except  in  the  kingdom  of 
Kent,  it  was  reserved  to  St.  Aidan,  the  successor 
of  Columba,  assisted  by  a  band  of  missionaries 
from  Iona,  to  refresh  and  restore  what  Augustine 
had  begun.  His  See  was  fixed  in  Lindisfarn,  called 
afterward  the  Holy  Island  ;  and  from  that  time  on 
there  was  a  gradual  eating  away  of  the  national 
independence  of  the  British  Church,  until  in  the 
eleventh  century,  very  largely  under  the  influence 
of  Queen  Margaret,  the  subjection  was  virtually 
completed. 


48 


THE  CELTIC  CHURCH. 


But  two  things  not  only  deserve  but  demand 
our  attention.  First,  that  England  has  had  more 
Christian  centuries  of  independence  than  of  subor- 
dination. And  secondly,  that  although  sent  as  a 
monk  by  Gregory,  and  receiving  afterwards  from 
him  the  pallium  which  declared  his  own  personal 
allegiance,  Augustine's  orders  as  Bishop  came  from 
Etherius,  the  Bishop  of  Aries,  and  so  were  Galli- 
can  and  Eastern,  through  Polycarp  and  St.  John. 

I  have  no  time,  no  right,  no  need  to  speak  of 
these  four  centuries  which  belong  to  the  next  lec- 
ture in  this  course.  But  as  it  is  part  of  the  story 
of  Iona  and  the  Celtic  Church  to  tell  of  Oswald 
the  King,  and  Aidan  the  Bishop,  so  it  is  still  the 
story  of  Columba  and  Iona,  to  speak  of  Margaret 
the  Queen.  And  really  among  all  the  figures 
that  pass  before  us  in  this  panoramic  review  of 
the  early  story  of  Christian  work  in  Britain,  cer- 
tainly none  is  more  beautiful  and  attractive  than 
hers.  "  Mirror  of  wives,  mothers  and  queens,"  and 
mother  of  many  kings,  her  character  is  most  re- 
markable in  its  combination  of  all  that  we  call 
manly  in  courage  and  strength  of  intellect  and 
purpose,  afid  of  all  we  know  to  be  womanly  in 
tenderness,  purity,  gentleness  and  devotion.  Of 
course,  one  recognizes  always  with  pain  and  regret, 
that  it  was  largely  due  to  her  strong  influence,  that 
the  second  "  Roman  occupation  of  Britain  "  was 
brought  about,  seven  centuries  after  pagan  Rome 


THE  CELTIC  CHURCH. 


49 


had  left  it ;  but  no  prejudice  can  blind  our  eyes  to 
the  influence  of  her  holy  character  and  the  beauty 
of  her  saintly  life. 

We  have  an  authenticated  account  of  her  in  the 
memoir  written  by  Turgot,  who  was  her  confessor 
and  intimate  friend,  Prior  of  Durham  and  Bishop 
of  St.  Andrews,  and  who  died  in  1115.  He  calls 
himself  in  the  prologue  of  the  life  "a  servant  of 
the  servants  of  St.  Cuthbert." 

She  was  the  granddaughter  of  King  Edmund, 
who  was  known  for  his  matchless  valor  as  "  Ed- 
mund the  Ironside."  Her  coming  to  Scotland  was 
brought  about  by  the  wars  and  massacres  attend- 
ing the  past  struggles  of  the  Saxons  against  the 
Normans.  At  the  death  of  Harold,  Edgar,  the 
brother  of  Margaret,  though  still  a  boy,  was  chosen 
King ;  and  after  the  defeat  of  the  English,  he  fled 
with  his  mother  and  his  two  sisters  to  seek  shelter 
at  the  court  of  Malcolm,  King  of  Scotland,  who 
received  them  at  Dunfermline  and  persuaded  Mar- 
garet to  give  up  her  purpose  of  becoming  a  nun 
and  to  marry  him. 

Mr.  Freeman  says  of  this  marriage  that  it  was 
"  through  Margaret  that  the  old  kingly  blood  of 
England  passed  into  the  veins  of  the  descendants 
of  the  Conqueror.  The  tree  runs  back  to  the  root 
when  Henry  the  First  marries  Matilda,  the  daugh- 
ter of  Margaret,  and  it  bears  leaves  at  the  birth  of 
her  children."    And  we  must  remember  how  dis- 


5° 


THE  CELTIC  CHURCH. 


tinguished  the  royal  line  was  that  descended  from 
her  in  the  kings  Edgar,  Alexander  and  David  and 
their  descendants  ;  so  that  Scotland  for  two  hun- 
dred years  was  governed  by  seven  admirable  kings, 
all  tracing  their  life  and  character  to  her. 

Turgot's  description  of  the  personal  relations 
between  Margaret  and  Malcolm  is  very  touching 
and  interesting.  He  was  an  unlettered  savage 
really,  whom  she  refined  and  elevated  and  Chris- 
tianized ;  and  although  he  could  not  read,  he 
would  turn  over  and  examine  books  which  she 
used  either  for  her  devotion  or  her  study ;  and 
whenever  he  heard  her  express  especial  liking  for 
a  particular  book,  he  would  look  at  it  with  special 
interest,  kissing  it,  and  often  taking  it  into  his 
hands.  Sometimes  he  sent  for  a  worker  in  pre- 
cious metals,  whom  he  commanded  to  ornament 
that  volume  with  gold  and  gems  ;  and  when  the 
work  was  finished,  the  king  himself  used  to  carry 
the  book  to  the  queen,  as  a  loving  proof  of  his 
devotion.  She  had  a  strong  sense  of  the  dignity 
of  royalty,  and  kept  up  the  kingly  estate  with 
great  precision  and  care  ;  but  through  all,  her  own 
heart  was  fixed  upon  higher  and  holier  things. 
She  lived  really  a  life  of  religious  meditation  and 
perpetual  consecration  to  God.  And  her  great 
anxiety  and  care,  and  the  exercise  both  of  her 
authority  and  her  influence,  in  reforming  various 
corruptions  in  the  Church  of  Scotland  at  that 


THE  CELTIC  CHURCH. 


51 


time,  make  her  truly  one  of  the  "  nursing  mothers  " 
of  the  Church.  As  to  the  observance  of  Lent  and 
the  offering  of  the  Holy  Eucharist,  the  keeping  of 
the  Lord's  Day  and  the  matter  of  lawful  as  against 
unlawful  marriages,  she  counselled  with  the  clergy 
and  by  her  own  example,  influence  and  authority 
reformed  many  things  that  had  gone  wrong. 

Her  charities  were  unbounded  ;  so  much  so  that 
Turgot  says  that  she  was  poorer  than  any  of  her 
paupers,  often  stripping  herself  and  her  attendants 
of  garments  that  they  had  on,  to  give  to  those  who 
were  in  want,  that  none  should  go  away  in  distress. 
"  Now  and  then,"  Turgot  says,  "  she  helped  her- 
self to  something  or  other  out  of  the  king's  pri- 
vate property,  it  mattered  not  what  it  was,  to  give 
to  a  poor  person  ;  and  this  pious  plundering  the 
king  always  took  pleasantly  and  in  good  part.  It 
was  his  custom  to  offer  certain  coins  of  gold  upon 
Maundy  Thursday  and  at  High  Mass,  some  of 
which  coins  the  queen  often  devoutly  pillaged  and 
bestowed  on  the  beggar  who  was  petitioning  her 
for  help.  Although  the  king  was  fully  aware  of 
the  theft,  he  generally  pretended  to  know  nothing 
of  it,  and  felt  much  amused  by  it.  Now  and  then 
he  caught  the  queen  in  the  very  act,  with  the 
money  in  her  hand,  and  laughingly  threatened 
that  he  would  have  her  arrested,  tried,  and  found 
guilty." 

This  whole  story  of  Queen  Margaret  is  sur- 


52 


THE  CELTIC  CHURCH. 


rounded,  as  almost  all  these  histories  are,  with  the 
atmosphere  of  marvels  through  which  it  is  diffi- 
cult to  see  the  real  truth  of  history  ;  but  there  can 
be  no  question  of  the  beauty  and  holiness  of  her 
life,  of  the  wonderful  influence  that  she  had  over 
her  husband,  and  of  the  moral  value  of  her  reforms 
in  the  Church  ;  over  and  against  which  is  to  be  set 
the  fact  that  it  was  through  her  influence  that  the 
last  resistance  to  the  intrusion  of  the  Bishop  of 
Rome  was  overcome,  and  that  for  a  little  while 
England  became  Roman  again. 

It  is  with  her  that  the  story  of  the  Holy  Rood  is 
connected,  in  honour  of  which  the  youngest  of  her 
sons,  King  David,  built  a  Church  ;  and  it  was  with 
this  sacred  relic  in  her  hand  that  she  died,  just  at 
the  moment  that  her  son  Edgar  brought  news 
that  Malcolm  had  been  slain  in  battle.  Although 
the  ruins  of  Dunfermline  no  longer  guard  the  act- 
ual tomb  of  the  saint,  they  speak  of  her  beautiful 
memory  all  the  more  eloquently,  because  of  the 
contrast  with  the  ugly  reminder  of  puritan  Scot- 
land which  has  been  built  on  to  it.  And  the 
place  where  she  was  buried,  recently  restored  by 
the  carefulness  of  Queen  Victoria,  is  a  shrine  to 
which  many  reverent  and  loving  people  make  fre- 
quent pilgrimages. 

Her  biographer  stops  in  the  middle  of  the  re- 
cital of  a  wonderful  story  of  the  preservation,  after 
its  immersion  in  water,  of  her  book  of  the  Gos- 


THE  CELTIC  CHURCH. 


53 


pels,  to  say  what  we  may  all  endorse,  "  I  leave  it 
to  others  to  admire  the  tokens  of  miracles  which 
they  see  elsewhere.  I  admire  much  more  the 
works  of  mercy  which  I  perceived  in  Margaret, 
for  signs  are  common  to  the  good  and  the  bad, 
whereas  works  of  piety  and  true  charity  belong  to 
the  good  only.  The  former  sometimes  are  the 
proof  of  holiness,  the  latter  are  that  which  consti- 
tutes it." 

My  reverend  brother  who  is  to  take  up  the 
story  of  the  Anglo-Saxon  Church  will  not  feel  that 
I  have  trenched  upon  his  portion  of  the  history, 
if  I  recall,  merely  to  pass  over  it  the  simple  fact 
that  the  Gregorian  tone  which  entered,  through  St. 
Augustine,  into  the  worship  of  the  ancient  Celtic 
Church,  was  a  "  tonus  peregrinus ":  not  "  the 
Lord's  song  in  a  strange  land,"  but  a  strange  song, 
in  a  land  that  was  already  the  Lord's.  Like  bells 
jangled  out  of  tune,  it  was  the  source  of  a  discord 
which  jars  upon  the  ear,  for  centuries. 

My  one  concern  with  it  is  to  call  your  attention 
to  the  fact,  that  the  Roman  mission  was,  and 
is,  and  always  will  be  exotic  in  England ;  and 
that  it  really  had  no  strong  or  permanent  hold  in 
England.  At  the  end  of  the  seventh  century  the 
whole  of  England  was  in  communion  with  the 
Scoto-Celtic  Church  except  Kent,  East  Anglia, 
Wessex  and  Sussex ;  and  of  these  exceptions 
Sussex  was  heathen,  Wessex  was  under  a  Bishop 


54 


THE  CELTIC  CHURCH. 


in  Gallican  Orders,  and  in  communion  with  the 
British  Bishops,  so  that  Kent  and  East  Anglia 
alone  remained  in  subjection  to  Canterbury  and 
Rome.  In  central  England,  Christianity  was 
really  extinct  at  the  close  of  the  fifth  century  by 
the  massacre  of  Christians  and  the  removal  of  the 
survivors  to  the  north.  The  Britons  in  North 
Wales  remained  independent  of  Rome  until  the 
end  of  the  eighth  century;  in  Cornwall  till  the 
middle  of  the  tenth ;  in  southern  England  and 
Ireland  till  the  beginning  of  the  eighth  ;  in  Scot- 
land till  the  middle  of  the  eleventh  century,  and 
Ireland  did  not  entirely  surrender  until  nearly  the 
middle  of  the  twelfth;  so  that  the  Roman  occupa- 
tion of  Britain  ecclesiastically  was  really  only  for 
these  four  centuries,  from  the  twelfth  to  the  six- 
teenth, about  equal  to  the  duration  of  the  civil 
dominion  of  Rome  in  the  first  centuries. 

And  such  was  the  energy  of  the  Celtic  mission- 
ary monks  that  between  the  fifth  and  eighth  cen- 
turies they  had  entered  Gaul,  Italy,  Switzerland 
and  Germany ;  and  even  reached  the  Faroe  Isles 
and  Iceland  ;  so  that  the  Celtic  Church  extended 
from  Iceland  to  Spain,  from  the  Atlantic  to  the 
Danube,  from  Ireland  to  Italy. 

Is  there,  the  question  recurs,  any  living  relation 
between  the  Church  of  England  to-day  and  the 
old  founding  among  the  Celts  and  Britons?  I 
think  there  is.    The  remains  of  the  earlier  litur- 


THE  CELTfC  CHURCH. 


55 


gies  arc  few  ;  but  certain  distinctive  and  character- 
istic features  of  Celtic  Christianity  are  very  marked, 
as  showing  in  them  the  influence  of  the  Galatian 
and  Mozarabic  Liturgies ;  and  as  reproduced  in  our 
own.  Of  the  latter  may  be  instanced  the  bid- 
dings to  prayer,  called  prefaces ;  which  have  a 
resemblance  at  least  to  our  exhortations  ;  the  place 
of  the  commemoration  of  the  departed  after  the 
Offertory,  rather  than  as  in  the  Roman  use  after, 
and  as  part  of,  the  Consecration  Prayer;  the  use  of 
a  hymn  after  the  consecration  in  the  Communion 
Office;  the  administration  of  the  Holy  Communion 
in  both  kinds  ;  the  use  of  confession  to  a  Priest 
left  optional  (in  the  Celtic  Church  it  seems  to  have 
been  public)  ;  and  the  observance  of  the  Rogation 
days,  unknown  in  the  Roman  Church  until  the  time 
of  Leo  Third.  Of  the  former,  we  find  very  marked 
features  of  a  Gallican  and  Mozarabic  character,  as 
for  instance  the  singing  of  the  hymn  Benedicite, 
before  the  Epistle  or  the  Gospel ;  the  use  of 
several,  sometimes  seven  collects  instead  of  the 
one  ;  the  Lection  from  the  Old  Testament  beside 
the  Epistle  and  Gospel  ;  the  Episcopal  benedic- 
tion given  after  the  consecration  and  fraction  of 
the  Bread  ;  reservation  in  both  kinds  for  the  sick, 
and  the  use  of  unleavened  bread. 

A  very  curious  and  striking  instance  is  found 
also  in  the  rule  that,  in  the  Holy  Eucharist,  if  the 
celebrant  were  a  Bishop  he  consecrated  alone,  if  a 


56 


THE  CELTIC  CHURCH. 


Priest  he  had  a  Priest  associated  with  him  ;  where- 
as in  the  Roman  use  the  Bishop  always  had  a 
Priest  associated  with  him  who  joined  in  the  words 
of  consecration.  It  was  this  habit  which  furnished 
an  instance  of  the  respect  that  Columba  paid  to 
the  Episcopal  office,  for  once,  Adamnan  records,  a 
stranger  from  the  Province  of  Munster  who  con- 
cealed through  humility  the  fact  that  he  was  a 
Bishop,  was  invited  on  the  next  Sunday  by 
Columba  to  join  with  him  in  consecrating  the 
Body  of  Christ,  that  as  Priests  they  might  break 
the  Bread  of  the  Lord  together.  Columba  on 
going  to  the  Altar  discovered  his  rank  and  ad- 
dressed him  thus:  "Christ  bless  thee,  brother: 
consecrate  alone  as  a  Bishop,  now  that  we  know 
that  thou  are  of  that  rank.  Why  hast  thou  en- 
deavored to  disguise  this,  and  so  prevent  us  giving 
thee  the  honour  due  to  thee?" 

More  than  this,  I  think  there  is  a  likeness, 
which  proves  a  lineal  descent,  between  the  Church 
of  England  of  the  last  three  centuries  and  the 
Celtic  Church  of  the  older  days.  Something  else 
beside  Wicklif  s  ashes  was  carried  by  the  Severn 
to  the  sea.  The  spirit  of  the  nine  British  Bishops 
who,  on  the  bank  of  the  Severn,  under  what  was 
called  St.  Augustine's  Oak,  held  their  conference 
with  the  great  Gregory's  great  missionary — that 
spirit  of  the  old  British  Bishops  revived  and  lived 
again  in  Cranmer  and  Ridley  and  Latimer.  The 


THE  CEL  TIC  CHURCH. 


57 


heart  of  the  oak  was  British  ;  and  only  sheltered 
Augustine  for  a  time.  Its  root  was  in  its  native 
soil.  And  from  the  Severn  to  the  sea,  and  over 
the  seas  to  us,  and  over  all  seas,  as  the  Church  of 
England  goes  with  English  commerce  and  English 
colonization  to  the  ends  of  the  earth,  it  is  the  old 
life,  autonomous,  independent,  needing  and  know- 
ing no  fountain-head  but  Christ,  and  charged 
alike  with  the  spirit  and  the  power,  the  privilege 
and  the  responsibility,  of  bearing  the  sound  of  the 
Gospel  into  all  lands,  and  its  words  unto  the  ends 
of  the  world. 

There  is  a  yew  -tree  in  the  churchyard  at  Crow- 
hurst  in  Surrey,  which  bears  the  botanical  marks, 
allowed  by  scientific  experts,  of  fifteen  hundred 
years  of  life:  so  that  it  might  have  heard' the  vic- 
torious shouts  of  the  battle  of  the  Hallelujah,  and 
listened  to  St.  Germanus,  refreshing  with  a  new 
current  of  Catholic  truth  the  old  Galatian  heritage 
of  British  Christianity.  It  is  in  a  churchyard  ;  and 
it  suits  some  people  to  deal  with  it  therefore 
as  a  memorial  of  mourning  and  a  suggestion  of 
decay.  Shall  it  not  rather  tell  us  how,  in  God's 
acre,  it  stands  to  preach  the  blessed  story  of  "mor- 
tality swallowed  up  in  life,"  of  the  old  deeply- 
rooted  tree  of  primitive  Christianity,  which  draws 
its  very  nourishment  from  the  decay  of  the  gener- 
ations that  it  shelters  and  survives  ;  which  graces 
and  guards  the  graves  of  successive  and  continuous 


58 


THE  CELTIC  CHURCH. 


Christian  centuries  ;  which  witnesses,  with  every 
wind  that  waves  its  spreading  branches,  to  its 
"  rooting  and  grounding  "  in  eternal  truth  ?  The 
emblematic,  ever-green  yew  tree  is  the  symbol  of 
the  imperishableness  of  the  British  Church,  green 
in  its  old  age  ;  which  has  fulfilled  the  hope,  that 
passes  still  into  our  prayers,  Floreat  radix.  "  She 
stretches  forth  her  branches  unto  the  sea,  and  her 
boughs  unto  the  river."  "The  hills  are  covered 
with  the  shadow  of  it ;  and  the  boughs  thereof  are 
like  the  goodly  cedar  trees."  God  made  room  for 
it,  and  "  when  it  had  taken  root  it  filled  the  land." 


Z\k  Hnolo-Sayon  Cburcb. 


LECTURE  II. 


THE  REV.  SAMUEL  HART,  D.D., 
Professor  of  Latin  at  Trinity  College,  Hartford. 

THE  ANGLO-SAXON  CHURCH. 

The  history  of  the  Anglo-Saxon  Church  is  the 
history  of  the  Church  of  the  English  people,  dur- 
ing the  first  centuries  of  their  life  in  the  home 
which  they  had  conquered  for  themselves  in  the 
island  of  Britain.  The  former  inhabitants  of  that 
island,  who  were  dispossessed  by  these  invaders 
from  the  continent,  had  indeed  been  converted  to 
Christianity ;  they  formed  a  part  of  that  Celtic 
Church,  the  history  of  which  has  been  lately  pre- 
sented to  you.  But  the  Angles  and  Saxons  and 
Jutes  were  heathens  when  they  crossed  the  sea  in 
the  fifth  and  sixth  centuries,  and  they  were  in  no 
way  affected  by  the  political  organizations,  the  so- 
cial customs,  or  the  religious  faith  of  those  whom 
they  swept  before  them  into  the  mountains  of 
Wales  and  the  peninsula  of  Cornwall.  The  Bri- 
tish Christians,  not  without  brave  attempts  at  re- 
sistance, fell  back  before  the  ruthlessly  cruel  in- 
61 


62  THE  ANGLO-SAXON  CHURCH. 


vaders ;  and  nearly  the  whole  of  what  we  now  call 
England — the  country  south  of  the  Tweed  and 
east  of  the  Dee  and  the  Severn — became  again  an 
utterly  heathen  land.  In  the  long  strife  the  wor- 
shippers of  Woden  and  of  Thor  had  overcome 
and  expelled  the  worshippers  of  Christ ;  in  the 
conquered  land  there  were  none  left  to  tell  the 
conquerors  the  story  of  His  truth,  nor  did  the 
British  Christians  venture  from  their  hiding-places 
to  teach  it  to  the  savages  of  whom  they  had  good 
reason  to  stand  in  dread. 

The  story  of  the  conversion  of  the  English — 
for  such  we  may  fairly  call  them  after  the  time 
when  they  had  taken  possession  of  the  land  in 
which  their  descendants  dwell  to-day — is  a  story 
of  wonderful  and  romantic  interest.  And  that 
interest  is  by  no  means  confined  to  the  time  of 
the  conversion  of  the  people  to  Christianity.  The 
whole  period  during  which  the  English  Church 
was  laying  its  foundations  and  beginning  the  erec- 
tion of  that  stately  fabric  which  was  destined  to 
be  the  mother-city  of  Churches  beyond  the  seas 
and  a  firm  bulwark  of  the  truth  in  times  of  its 
utmost  danger  —  the  whole  of  the  Anglo-Saxon 
period  is  filled  with  events  which  call  forth  all  the 
enthusiasm  of  faith,  and  its  history  is  crowded 
with  the  names  of  great  men.  We  find  pervading 
it  a  touching  simplicity,  as  we  read  of  the  words 
and  deeds  of  bishops  and  of  kings,  who  with  all 


THE  ANGLO-SAXON  CHURCH.  63 


of  a  father's  love  cared  for  both  the  temporal 
and  the  eternal  interests  of  their  children  in  the 
Church  and  in  the  State ;  a  faithful,  unquestion- 
ing obedience  to  the  Christ  Whom  they  preached, 
and  to  Whom  they  hacl  devoted  their  lives,  corre- 
sponding to  which  we  are  scarce  surprised  to  read 
the  record  of  what  would  be  in  our  days  extraor- 
dinary manifestations  of  Divine  approval  and 
help ;  and  withal  an  earnest  determination  to  im- 
part to  others  the  truth  and  the  blessings  which 
were  worth  so  much  to  themselves.  Outside  of 
the  limits  of  the  great  world-empire,  which  still  in 
name  asserted  the  power  and  the  prerogatives  of 
the  Caesars,  outside  of  the  lands  in  which  the  lan- 
guage of  that  empire  was  the  speech  of  civilized 
men,  there  grew  up  during  some  five  centuries  the 
one  purely  national  Church  of  the  West.  Influ- 
enced by  Rome  so  far  as  to  be  brought  into  touch 
with  the  life  of  the  great  Catholic  Church,  inde- 
pendent of  Rome  so  far  as  to  assert  and  maintain 
the  rights  of  a  national  Church  as  they  were  then 
understood,  our  English  ancestors  of  that  early 
day  were  beginning  a  work,  the  importance  of 
which  was  quite  beyond  the  reach  of  their  imag- 
ination. The  conversion  of  the  English,  the  es- 
tablishment of  the  English  Church,  the  growth 
of  a  Christian  English  nation,  form  a  chapter  in 
history  so  full  of  records  of  apostolic  faith  and  of 
primitive  zeal  and  of  practical  applications  of  the 


64 


THE  ANGLO-SAXON  CHURCH. 


law  of  Christianity,  that  it  is  hard  to  remember 
that,  when  we  begin  to  read  it,  we  are  close  at 
the  opening  of  the  seventh  century  of  our  era;  it 
seems  rather  to  belong  to  those  earlier  days  when 
the  virtues  of  Christian  men  were  of  that  simple 
kind  which  best  embodies  the  spirit  of  our  re- 
ligion, and  when  even  their  faults  were  such'  as 
pertain  rather  to  the  infirmities  than  to  the  vices 
of  human  nature. 

I  venture  to  think,  gentlemen  of  the  Church 
Club,  that  I  can  best  remind  you  of  the  important 
facts  in  the  history  of  the  early  English  Church 
and  of  the  work  which  it  accomplished  for  its  own 
time  and  for  the  future,  by  asking  you  to  look 
at  a  few  of  the  prominent  scenes  in  that  history. 
In  nearly  every  case  we  shall  find  a  famous  man 
whose  name  is  closely  associated  with  a  famous 
place. 

r. 

And  first  of  all,  we  think  of  St.  Augustine  and 
of  Canterbury;  for  with  him  and  there  the  work  of 
the  Christianization  of  the  English  people  began. 
Kent  was  not  the  most  important  of  the  kingdoms 
which  the  invaders  had  founded  ;  but  it  was  the 
place  where  the  earliest  permanent  Teutonic  set- 
tlement had  been  made :  and  it  was  not  very 
closely  connected  with  the  other  kingdoms  ;  for 
its  people  were  Jutes,  while  those  of  the  others 


THE  ANGLO-SAXON  CHURCH. 


65 


were  Saxons  or  Angles  ;  but  it  occupied  the  part 
of  the  island  which  was  nearest  the  continent,  and 
it  was  almost  of  necessity  the  place  to  which  mis- 
sionaries would  first  come.  We  all  know  the  story 
of  the  pious  monk  Gregory,  who,  struck  by  the 
beauty  of  some  fair-skinned  and  golden-haired 
youths  whom  he  saw  exposed  in  the  slave-market 
at  Rome,  asked  of  what  nation  they  were :  when 
he  was  told  that  they  were  Angles,  he  said  that 
they  should  rather  be  called  angels ;  when  he 
learned  that  they  were  from  the  province  of 
Deira,  he  affirmed  that  they  ought  to  be  delivered 
from  the  ire  of  God ;  and  still  further,  learning 
that  the  name  of  their  king  was  Aella,  declared 
that  their  tongues  should  be  taught  to  sing 
Alleluia.  But  he  did  not  content  himself  with 
playing  upon  words.  His  heart  was  touched, 
and  he  prayed,  and  obtained  consent,  that  he 
might  go  to  the  end  of  the  earth  and  preach  the 
Gospel  to  the  Angles.  But  this  purpose  could  not 
be  accomplished  at  once  ;  and  after  a  few  years 
his  election  to  the  bishopric  of  Rome  made  it 
impossible  for  him  to  fulfil  in  person  the  plan 
which  he  had  formed.  Yet  he  did  not  forget  the 
bright  faces  of  the  lads  who  had  been  brought 
from  Yorkshire,  very  possibly  having  been  cap- 
tured by  the  men  of  Kent,  to  be  sold  as  slaves  at 
Rome  ;  and  soon  he  selected  Augustine,  the  pro- 
vost of  his  own  monastery  of  St.  Andrew,  to  lead 


66 


THE  ANGLO-SAXON  CHURCH. 


a  band  of  missionaries  to  the  English.  Perhaps, 
for  reasons  already  suggested,  he  would  under 
any  circumstances  have  sent  them  at  first  to  the 
southeastern  peninsula  ;  but  he  can  hardly  have 
been  ignorant  of  the  fact  that  there  was  at  least  the 
possibility  of  a  more  favorable  opening  there  than 
elsewhere  in  the  island.  Ethelbert  had  been  for 
thirty  years  king  of  Kent,  and  he  had  married 
Bertha,  the  daughter  of  a  Frankish  king,  promis- 
ing that  she  should  be  allowed  the  practice  of 
her  religion  as  a  Christian,  her  chaplain  being  the 
Frankish  bishop  Liudhard. 

It  was  after  Easter  in  the  year  597  that  the  mis- 
sionaries landed  on  the  isle  of  Thanet ;  and  in  the 
Ascension  week,  by  permission  of  the  king,  they 
came  to  Canterbury.  Outside  the  city  stood  the 
little  church  of  St.  Martin's,  where  St.  Martin's 
Church  stands  to-day,  the  Roman  brick  in  its 
walls  still  testifying  to  the  great  antiquity  of  a  part 
at  least  of  its  structure,  once  the  worshipping-place 
of  a  Christian  congregation,  then  the  chapel  of  a 
Christian  queen.  As  they  entered,  Augustine,  lift- 
ing up  the  Cross,  took  possession  of  Canterbury 
and  of  England  for  Christ.  Then  he  and  his 
brethren,  chanting  the  Rogation  antiphon  which 
they  had  learned  in  Gaul,  and  adding  to  it  the  Gre- 
gorian Alleluia  of  the  Easter-tide,  prophesied  of 
the  struggle  and  the  victory  which  lay  before  them, 
and  with  prayers  and  thanksgiving  began  their 


THE  ANGLO-SAXON  CHURCH.  67 


work.  It  was,  we  are  told,  the  simplicity  and 
purity  and  devotion  of  the  lives  of  these  men, 
which  drew  to  them  the  hearts  of  the  heathen 
among  whom  they  had  come  to  dwell.  Soon 
Ethelbert  himself  was  baptized,  and  soon  Kent- 
could  be  called  a  Christian  kingdom  ;  and  the 
conversion  of  Teutonic  England  began  just  a.v 
Columba,  the  great  missionary  of  Celtic  Britain, 
was  breathing  his  last.  Presently  Augustine,  at 
Gregory's  direction,  repaired  to  Aries  in  Gaul  to 
receive  consecration  as  a  bishop  ;  and  on  his  re- 
turn, he  restored  an  ancient  Roman  church  within 
the  walls  of  Canterbury,  dedicated  it  to  the  Lord 
Christ,  and  made  it  his  cathedral,  while  for  those 
who  had  come  with  him  he  founded  a  monastery 
hard  by.  The  stately  pile  which  is  the  metropo- 
litical  church  of  all  England  is  the  Christ  Church 
of  Augustine's  foundation,  and  the  missionary  col- 
lege which  bears  his  own  name  has  rescued  from 
desecration  the  site  of  the  buildings  that  served 
to  shelter  the  simple  monks  who  first  taught  to 
the  men  of  Kent  the  way  of  salvation. 

Gregory  the  Great  was  a  man  of  no  meagre 
plans  or  narrow  hopes.  It  was  he,  we  are  told, 
who  first  spoke  of  the  people  of  England  as  if 
they  were  all  one  nation  ;  he  authorized  Augustine 
to  use  the  powers  of  a  metropolitan,  consecrating 
twelve  suffragans  for  himself ;  and  he  planned  that 
Deira,  the  land  of  the  beautiful  youths,  further 


68 


THE  ANGLO-SAXON  CHURCH. 


north,  should  also,  when  its  people  should  become 
Christians,  have  a  metropolitan  with  twelve  suf- 
fragans. The  plan  was  never  carried  into  effect 
in  all  its  details;  fortunately  for  England,  the  ar- 
rangement of  English  dioceses  followed  the  lines 
of  the  divisions  and  sub-divisions  of  English  king- 
doms, and  was  not  guided  by  schemes  drawn  up 
at  Rome  and  based  on  former  Roman  arrange- 
ments in  Britain  ;  it  was  a  natural  growth,  not  an 
artificial  structure.  But  after  all  it  was  Gregory 
who  planned  the  organization  of  all  England  into 
the  form  of  a  national  Church. 

And  Gregory  had  plans  also  which  included  the 
Christians  in  the  remoter  part  of  the  land  to  the 
heathen  portion  of  which  he  had  sent  his  mission- 
aries. Writing  to  Augustine  in  reply  to  questions 
which  he  had  addressed  him  as  to  certain  matters, 
among  them  his  relations  to  the  British  bishops, 
he  had  told  him  that  he  was  to  ask  them  to  work 
with  him  in  converting  the  Saxons,  but  had  added, 
with  a  truly  Roman  assumption,  that  he  was  to 
consider  them  all  as  subject  to  the  authority  which 
he  had  established  at  Canterbury.  Augustine 
thereupon  asked  the  British  bishops  to  meet  him 
in  conference ;  they  came  a  first  and  a  second 
time ;  they  argued  with  him  as  to  the  three  points 
of  divergence  between  the  Roman  and  the  British 
Churches — the  Easter  rule  and  cycle,  the  shape  of 
the  tonsure,  the  ceremonies  accompanying  bap- 


THE  ANGLO-SAXON  CHURCH.  69 


tism  ;  they  were  offended  at  what  they  thought 
to  be  an  indication  of  arrogance  on  his  part ;  they 
refused  to  yield  to  his  demands  and  to  unite  with 
him  in  preaching  to  the  Saxons  ;  and  Augustine 
returned  to  Kent  unsuccessful  and  disappointed. 
Nearer  home,  however,  his  work  made  progress ; 
Justus  was  consecrated  bishop  of  Rochester,  ap- 
parently the  chief  city  of  a  petty  kingdom  of 
West  Kent;  and  the  king  of  the  East  Saxons, 
Ethelbert's  nephew  and  dependent,  became  a 
Christian,  and  Mellitus  was  made  first  bishop  of 
London. 

Such  is  in  outline  what  St.  Augustine  of  Can- 
terbury had  accomplished,  when,  in  the  prospect 
of  immediate  death,  he  designated  and  conse- 
crated his  friend  Laurence  to  be  his  successor, 
eight  years  after  he  had  set  foot  on  English  soil. 
It  is  true  that  Augustine  was  not  a  great  man, 
nor  was  he  always  a  wise  man ;  but  he  laid  the 
foundations  of  a  great  work  which  was  guided  by 
a  wisdom  superior  to  his  own.  There  have  been 
those  who  have  exaggerated  his  labors  and  their 
results,  as  if  from  him  alone  came  the  knowledge 
of  Christianity  to  the  British  Isles  ;  and  there  have 
been  others  who  have  looked  upon  his  mission  as 
almost  a  failure.  The  true  estimate  of  what  he 
did  lies  between  the  two.  We  cannot  forget  the 
British  Christians,  who  kept  the  knowledge  of  the 
truth  in  the  wild  mountains  of  the  west ;  we  can- 


70  THE  ANGLO-SAXON  CHURCH. 

not  forget  the  debt  which  the  north  and  the  mid 
lands  owed  to  the  Celtic  missionaries  from  the 
island  of  the  saints ;  we  must  acknowledge  that 
when  Augustine  died,  his  influence  had  not  ex- 
tended far:  but  he  had  brought  Christianity  to 
the  English  people  ;  he  had  established  a  see,  the 
power  of  which  would  soon  be  felt  over  a  united 
nation  and  would  at  last  extend  throughout  the 
world;  and  he  had  inspired  into  the  English 
somewhat  of  the  missionary  zeal  which  already 
marked  the  Scots.  Though  he  lived  to  consecrate 
but  two  of  the  proposed  suffragans  of  his  see,  the 
result  of  his  labors  was  soon  felt  outside  of  Kent 
and  Essex.  Along  ways  which  he  had  pointed 
out,  Felix  of  Burgundy  was  sent  by  one  of  his 
successors  to  East  Anglia,  and  Birinus  of  Italy 
carried  the  Gospel  to  Wessex.  And  under  more 
happy  circumstances  and  in  a  more  natural  way 
than  had  marked  his  unsuccessful  attempts,  the 
remnant  of  the  ancient  British  Church  and  the 
Celtic  Church  of  the  north  were  brought  into 
union  with  the  Roman  mission,  and  the  Church 
of  the  British  isles  was  made  one. 

II. 

The  next  scene  which  attracts  our  attention 
as  marking  a  turning-point  in  the  history  is  the 
council  or  conference  at  Whitby  in  the  spring  of 
the  year  664 ;  and  the  man  who  stands  out  prom- 


THE  ANGLO-SAXON  CHURCH. 


inently  before  us  is  the  bishop  Wilfrid.  Before 
this  time — and  it  was  less  than  sixty  years  after 
Augustine's  death — great  changes  had  taken  place. 
Ethelbert's  son  and  successor  had  for  a  time  re- 
fused Christianity,  and  Kent  had  nearly  relapsed 
into  paganism  ;  but  Ethelbert's  sister  had  married 
Edwin  of  Northumbria,  and  she  had  taken  with 
her  to  the  northern  kingdom  Paulinus,  who  had 
been  first  consecrated  a  bishop.  Edwin  was  con- 
verted, and,  by  a  decision  of  his  Witan,  Northum- 
bria became  Christian  ;  and  Paulinus  was  recog- 
nized as  bishop  of  York,  including  under  his  ju- 
risdiction the  land  of  Deira  and  extending  his 
labors  to  Lincoln.  But  the  north  Welsh,  joining 
themselves  to  the  still  heathen  Mercians,  invaded 
Northumbria ;  Edwin  was  killed,  and  Paulinus 
fled.  Then  Oswald,  Edwin's  nephew,  took  the 
throne,  repulsed  the  Welsh,  and  while  he  extended 
his  supremacy  took  care  also  to  restore  the  Chris- 
tian religion,  to  which  he  was  devoutly  attached. 
To  accomplish  this,  he  needed  a  bishop ;  and  he 
sent  to  the  far-off  isle  of  Hy,  the  Iona  of  later 
days,  the  great  centre  of  light  and  learning,  the 
very  name  of  which  fills  us  even  now  with  deep 
emotion.  So  Aidan  came,  consecrated  by  the 
Celtic  bishops  of  Hy  and  bringing  with  him  their 
customs,  so  strange  in  the  eyes  of  those  who  were 
in  the  habit  of  looking  to  Rome  as  their  pattern  ; 
and,  with  a  love  for  an  island  home  and  a  Celtic 


72 


THE  ANGLO-SAXON  CHURCH. 


bishop's  desire  for  retirement,  he  placed  his  bishop, 
stool  on  Lindisfarne,  the  holy  island  of  the  east- 
ern coast.  Aidan  and  Oswald  labored  and  almost 
lived  together  until  the  still  youthful  king  fell 
in  battle  slain  by  the  heathen  against  whom  he 
was  defending  the  homes  of  his  people  ;  and  soon 
Aidan  was  succeeded  by  Finan,  another  bishop 
from  Hy.  Under  Finan  the  paschal  question 
was  raised,  or  at  least  revived,  in  Northumbria. 
The  Scottish  bishop  followed  the  British  use, 
claiming  that  it  came  from  Ephesus  and  St. 
John  ;  those  who  had  received  their  Christianity 
from  Kent  or  from  Gaul  followed  the  Roman  use, 
basing  it  on  the  authority  of  St.  Peter  as  the  chief 
of  the  Apostles.  The  question  was  not  the  an- 
cient quartodeciman  controversy,  of  which  we 
read  in  ante-Nicene  times,  though  it  was  and  is 
often  confused  with  it ;  for  both  parties  kept 
Easter  on  Sunday :  it  related  partly  to  the  cycle 
which  should  be  used  in  determining  the  time  of 
the  ecclesiastical  full  moon,  the  British  Christians 
not  having  learned  of  the  tables  adopted  at  Rome 
since  they  had  ceased  to  have  regular  intercourse 
with  that  city,  and  partly  (and  especially)  to  the 
determination  of  the  earliest  day  on  which  Easter 
might  fall,  the  British  keeping  it  on  the  day  of 
the  full  moon  if  that  fell  on  a  Sunday,  while  the 
Romans  in  that  case  deferred  it  to  the  Sunday 
following.    Each  party  accused  the  other  of  un- 


THE  ANGLO-SAXON  CHURCH. 


73 


catholic  action  and  of  heresy  ;  and  the  controversy 
was  most  persistent  and  bitter.  Northumbria  and 
Kent  were  not  far  apart,  and  had  constant  com- 
munication with  each  other  ;  the  two  branches 
of  the  Church  represented  in  these  kingdoms  were 
in  many  ways  brought  closely  together  ;  and  it 
was  impossible  that  a  matter  which  both  consid- 
ered so  important  should  be  left  undecided.  In 
fact,  the  matter  came  still  nearer  home  to  the 
southern  Christians ;  for  Cedd,  who  had  labored 
successfully  among  the  East  Saxons,  had  been 
consecrated  by  Finan  and  two  other  Scottish 
bishops  to  preside  over  the  Church  in  that  king- 
dom. Soon  came  the  conflict  between  Colman, 
Finan's  successor,  himself  of  Scottish  ordination, 
and  Wilfrid.  This  Wilfrid  was  a  Northumbrian 
of  noble  birth,  who  had  visited  Rome  and  Lyons, 
and  had  formed  a  strong  attachment  to  the  Roman 
see.  He  came  back  to  take  up  his  home  at  Ripon, 
and  to  feel  and  resent  the  peculiarities  and  the  de- 
fects of  the  Christianity  which  had  been  brought 
to  his  native  land  from  the  uncouth  Christians  of 
the  north.  He  was  determined  that  the  civilized 
customs  should  not  yield  to  those  which  were 
barbarous,  and  that  the  Roman  should  displace 
the  Celtic  Easter. 

A  conference  was  called,  which,  as  has  been 
said,  met  in  the  year  664,  at  Whitby,  on  a  lofty 
bluff  overlooking  the  northern  sea,  lately  chosen 


74  THE  ANGLO-SAXON  CHURCH. 


as  the  site  of  a  monastery.  In  arguing  the  case, 
Colman  appealed  to  the  ancient  custom  of  his 
Church  ;  Wilfrid  urged  the  extended  influence  of 
the  Roman  Church  and  the  power  which  the  Lord 
had  given  to  St.  Peter.  The  king  decided,  solely 
(as  it  would  seem)  from  the  latter  argument,  that 
Rome  must  be  right ;  and  Colman  withdrew  to  the 
western  isles.  The  controversy  had  been  about  a 
matter  of  very  little  importance,  save  as  it  affected 
uniformity  of  usage  and  brotherly  charity ;  and 
we  are  inclined  to  regret  here,  as  so  often  in  later 
history,  the  stamping  out  of  local  usage  by  the 
harsh  assumptions  of  the  Roman  see.  Yet,  so  far 
as  there  was  a  right  and  a  wrong  in  this  matter, 
Rome  was  in  the  right ;  and  the  conference  of 
Whitby  kept  the  English  Church  from  becoming 
isolated  from  the  living  and  growing  Christianity 
which  was  gaining  so  much  and  so  useful  power 
in  western  Europe.  Had  the  matter  been  decided 
otherwise,  English  Christianity  could  hardly  have 
escaped  disruption,  and  it  would  at  least  have 
been  cramped  in  a  narrow  mould  and  so  prevented 
from  accomplishing  the  work  which  lay  before 
it.  We  cannot  but  sympathize  with  the  Celtic 
bishop  who  went  back  sorrowfully  to  his  former 
home ;  but  we  can  see  that  Wilfrid  saved  the 
English  Church  from  the  danger  of  becoming  a 
tribal  and  monastic  Church  and  from  falling  into 
that  Irish  chaos  which  overwhelmed  all  order  and 


THE  ANGLO-SAXON  CHURCH.  75 


discipline.  At  Whitby  a  most  important  step 
was  taken,  while  yet  there  was  in  no  strict  sense 
a  nation  of  the  English,  towards  establishing  a 
national  English  Church. 

It  would  be  instructive  and  interesting,  had  we 
the  time,  to  trace  out  in  some  detail  the  after  life 
of  Wilfred  ;  but  a  few  words  must  suffice  for  such 
facts  as  bear  upon  the  progress  of  the  history. 
He  was  soon  chosen  bishop  of  York;  and,  unwil- 
ling to  accept  consecration  from  those  whom  he 
called  schismatics,  he  went  to  France  and  was 
consecrated  by  the  bishop  of  Paris.  But  he  was 
long  in  returning;  and  when  he  came  to  North- 
umbria,  he  found  that  Chad  had  been  consecrated 
in  his  place  by  Wina  of  Wessex  and  two  bishops 
from  West  Wales — the  first  step  towards  an  act- 
ual union  of  the  English  Church  with  the  Welsh, 
but  the  last  time  for  centuries  that  any  English 
bishop  had  a  consecrator  outside  of  the  Roman 
communion.  Wilfrid  retired  and  worked  faith- 
fully in  Mercia  and  Kent,  until  he  was  restored  to 
York.  There,  after  a  time  of  much  labor  and 
great  success,  he  incurred  the  displeasure  of  the 
king  and  placed  himself  in  opposition  to  the  plans 
of  Archbishop  Theodore  (of  whom  we  shall  hear 
presently) ;  and  when  a  part  of  his  diocese  was  re- 
moved from  his  jurisdiction  without  his  consent, 
he  determined  to  carry  an  appeal  in  person  to 
Rome.    On  his  way  his  ship  landed  him  in  Fries- 


76 


THE  ANGLO-SAXON  CHURCH. 


land ;  there  his  love  of  adventure  and  of  work 
prevailed  for  a  time,  and  he  became  the  first  Eng- 
lish missionary,  moving  the  hearts  of  the  rude 
people  to  hear  and  to  accept  the  truth.  At  last 
he  went  to  Rome ;  his  case  was  heard  by  a 
council  and  determined  in  his  favor;  but  now,  as 
formerly  when  he  went  to  France,  he  could  not 
easily  tear  himself  away  from  Rome.  When  he 
did  reach  Northumbria  he  produced  the  papal 
bull,  only  to  discover  that  his  appeal  was  regarded 
as  disloyalty  and  that  he  was  charged  with  having 
gained  his  case  dishonestly.  After  imprisonment 
he  was  practically  banished,  and  he  found  no 
resting-place  till  he  came  to  Sussex,  the  only 
part  of  England  that  was  still  heathen.  Here  his 
missionary  enthusiasm  was  again  aroused ;  he 
first  taught  the  barbarous  people  to  catch  fish, 
and  then  preached  to  them  the  Gospel ;  and  for  five 
years  he  stayed  among  them  apparently  without  a 
murmur.  Then  Theodore  sent  him  back  again  to 
the  north,  where  once  more  he  got  into  trouble, 
and  whence  once  more  he  carried  an  appeal 
to  Rome,  to  meet  with  success  there,  but  to  find 
that  the  papal  decrees  were  not  considered  infal- 
lible in  England.  Wilfrid  was  now  an  old  man; 
he  consented  to  a  compromise,  and  accepted  Hex- 
ham and  Ripon  as  his  diocese  for  the  rest  of  his 
life.  The  moral  of  his  career  is  to  be  read  all 
through   English  history.    He  succeeded  when 


THE  ANGLO-SAXON  CHURCH. 


77 


and  where  he  identified  himself  with  the  people  ; 
but  he  could  not  easily  identify  himself  with 
others  than  those  who  were  willing  to  submit 
themselves  to  him.  He  failed  when  he  ceased  to 
act  as  an  Englishman,  to  respect  English  preju- 
dices, and  to  follow  English  customs ;  he  failed 
when  he  appealed  for  justice  to  a  foreign  ruler, 
even  to  one  whose  authority  in  matters  spirit- 
ual was  highly  respected  ;  he  failed  when  he  at- 
tempted, though  probably  without  intending  it, 
to  make  the  English  Church  a  dependency  of  the 
Roman  see.  His  virtues  were  those  of  the  Eng- 
lishman ;  his  faults  were  those  of  the  Roman. 

III. 

But  we  must  pass  now,  stepping  a  little  back 
in  the  history,  to  the  important,  though  little 
known,  Council  of  Hertford,  and  to  the  great  man 
who  presided  at  it,  Theodore,  called  of  Tarsus, 
archbishop  of  Canterbury.  The  place  is  north  of 
London,  not  far  from  the  spot  where  St.  Albans 
points  to  the  site  of  an  ancient  Roman  city  and 
preserves  the  memory  of  a  tradition  of  British 
Christianity,  and  where  a  noble  cathedral  is 
crowned  with  a  tower  made  largely  of  the  Roman 
brick  of  Verulamium.  The  man  who  summoned 
an  assembly  of  the  English  Church  to  meet  there 
in  673,  was  one  who  united  in  himself  the  training 


78  THE  ANGLO-SAXON  CHURCH. 

of  the  East,  a  mission  from  the  great  imperial 
city,  and  the  duties  of  a  primacy  in  the  far  West 
Theodore  of  Tarsus,  Archbishop  of  Canterbury ' 
We  are  reminded  of  the  great  apostle,  whose  birth 
and  early  training  had  been  in  the  wealthy  and 
learned  city  on  the  banks  of  the  Cydnus,  and  who 
had  carried  the  words  of  the  Gospel  past  Rome  to 
the  very  bounds  of  the  West.  So  this  scholar,  taught 
in  the  secular  learning  of  the  schools  of  his  native 
city  and  in  the  theology  of  the  Oriental  Church, 
having  the  tonsure  of  an  eastern  monk,  already 
beyond  what  men  call  the  prime  of  life,  had  come 
to  Rome  at  a  time  when  the  English  Church  was 
in  a  weakened  state,  when  a  priest  sent  to  Rome 
to  be  consecrated  to  the  vacant  see  of  Canterbury 
had  died  there,  and  when  Hadrian,  a  Roman  abbot 
to  whom  the  position  was  offered,  had  declined  to 
accept  it.    On  Hadrian's  recommendation,  Theo- 
dore, not  yet  even  a  subdeacon,  was  designated 
for  the  post.    He  was  obliged  to  tarry  at  Rome 
till  his  hair  should  be  grown,  that  he  might  re- 
ceive the  Roman  tonsure ;  and  then,  having  been 
ordained  and  consecrated  by  the  Pope  himself,  he 
set  out  on  his  journey  to  Britain,  accompanied  by 
Hadrian  with  instructions  to  see  that  he  did  not 
follow  the  Greeks  in  anything  that  was  contrary 
to  the  faith.    This  precaution  may  have  had  refer- 
ence to  the  tonsure  or  the  Easter  question  or  to 
matters  connected  with  the  liturgy  ;  but  it  seems 


THE  ANGLO-SAXON  CHURCH.  79 


more  probable  that  it  was  feared  that  this  theo- 
logian from  the  East  might  not  hold  the  orthodox 
side  in  the  monothelite  controversy  which  was 
then  vexing  the  Church. 

Theodore  arrived  in  England  in  the  year  669, 
being  then  sixty-seven  years  old.  The  paschal 
controversy  had  been  settled  by  the  conference  at 
Whitby  ;  the  paganism  of  the  Anglo-Saxons  was 
practically  gone  ;  but  the  English  Church  was  in 
a  depressed  condition.  The  succession  introduced 
by  Augustine  survived  only  in  the  person  of 
Boniface  of  East  Anglia,  who  died  within  a  year ; 
and  there  were  but  three  bishops  engaged  in  active 
duties  in  England :  Wilfrid,  consecrated  for  York 
but  officiating  in  Kent ;  Chad,  occupying  York 
in  what  was  held  to  be  an  irregular  way  as  to  both 
consecration  and  jurisdiction  ;  and  Wina,  who  had 
been  expelled  from  Wessex  and  had,  by  purchase, 
procured  for  himself  the  see  of  London.  It  was 
no  small  task  which  lay  before  this  man  of  schol- 
arly habits,  who  had  spent  all  his  life  in  monas- 
teries in  southern  Europe.  But  Theodore,  a  very 
gift  of  God  to  England,  was  equal  to  the  work. 
He  made  a  visitation  of  the  whole  country  ;  he 
consecrated  bishops  to  vacant  sees ;  he  restored 
Wilfrid  to  York  and  Lindisfarne  ;  he  supplied  (as 
we  are  told)  the  defects  in  Chad's  consecration — 
it  is  impossible  to  say  just  what  the  words  mean 
1 — and  gave  him  a  bishopstool  at  Lichfield  ;  and 


8o  THE  ANGLO-SAXON  CHURCH. 


he  became  in  a  sense  the  sole  ecclesiastical  ruler 
of  England  more  than  a  century  before  it  was  all 
subjected  to  the  rule  of  one  king. 

In  the  autumn  of  673,  some  four  years  and  a 
half  after  his  arrival  in  England,  Theodore  sum- 
moned his  suffragans  to  meet  him  at  Hertford. 
Chad  was  dead  ;  Wilfrid  was  represented  by  depu- 
ties ;  Wina  did  not  attend;  and  the  four  bishops 
who  sat  with  Theodore  appear  to  have  been  all 
of  his  own  consecration.  The  archbishop  called 
upon  them  to  accept  the  definitions  of  the  faith, 
and  discussed  with  them  certain  canons  relating 
to  the  organization  and  the  administration  of  the 
Church  under  a  diocesan  system,  and  to  other  like 
matters;  then  the  decrees  were  formulated,  signed, 
and  promulgated.  It  is  impossible  to  overesti- 
mate the  importance  of  the  council  thus  solemnly 
assembled,  and  of  the  work  which  it  did.  It  gave 
unity  and  form  to  the  English  Church  by  provid- 
ing it  with  a  synodical  system,  from  the  lack  of 
which  its  organization  had  thus  far  been  imper- 
fect, even  as  compared  with  that  of  the  British 
Church  in  Wales  ;  it  made  England  an  ecclesiasti- 
cal province,  having  a  unity  of  life  and  work  and 
common  interests  ;  and,  more  than  that,  it  gave  to 
Englishmen  the  idea  of  a  unity  which  afterwards 
found  embodiment  under  kings  of  all  England. 
It  was,  as  the  historians  confess,  "  the  first  of  all 
national  gatherings  for  general  legislation,''  and 


THE  ANGLO-SAXON  CHURCH. 


81 


"  the  precursor  of  the  Witenagemots  and  parlia- 
ments of  the  one  indivisible  imperial  realm."  The 
acts  which  made  the  bishops  heads  of  dioceses 
rather  than  general  missionaries,  and  governors  in 
a  national  Church  rather  than  chaplains  of  petty 
princes,  had  no  little  influence  in  the  making  of 
England.  From  Theodore  and  his  council  at 
Hertford  went  forth  the  inspiration  which  consoli- 
dated the  realm,  which  gave  the  bishops  seats  in 
the  meetings  of  the  kings'  wise  men,  which  led  to 
the  assembling  of  the  Commons  at  Westminster, 
and  which  has  secured  to  England  a  unique  place 
among  the  Churches  and  the  kingdoms  of  the 
world. 

Thus  Theodore  had  done  much  to  perfect  the 
organization  and  external  form  of  the  English 
Church.  He  was  strongly  convinced  himself  that 
it  was  absolutely  necessary  for  its  welfare  that  the 
number  of  dioceses  should  be  largely  increased, 
though  as  to  this  point  he  had  not  been  able  to 
persuade  his  first  council  to  take  definite  action. 
But  he  watched  his  opportunities ;  and  he  did  his 
best  to  carry  out  plans  like  those  of  Gregory  for 
the  division  of  the  land  into  comparatively  small 
dioceses.  It  was  in  consequence  of  resistance  to 
these  plans  that  Wilfrid,  as  we  have  seen,  fell  into 
disfavor  with  the  archbishop,  and  carried  his  ap- 
peal to  Rome  ;  and  probably  for  a  like  reason  the 
successor  of  Chad  in  the  large  diocese  of  Lich- 


82  THE  ANGLO-SAXON  CHURCH. 


field  was  removed  from  his  see.  In  685,  Theo- 
dore, then  eighty-three  years  old,  was  in  York 
and  was  assisted  by  seven  bishops  in  consecrating 
Cuthbert  to  Lindisfarne ;  and  before  this  time  he 
seems  to  have  accomplished  his  wish  in  regard  to 
the  increase  of  the  number  of  dioceses.  Five 
years  later,  at  the  great  age  of  eighty-eight,  he 
died,  and  was  buried  in  Augustine's  monastery  in 
his  cathedral  city. 

As  we  have  seen,  he  had  organized  and  given 
unity  to  the  English  Church,  and  had  prepared  the 
way  for  the  unity  of  the  English  nation ;  and  in 
doing  this  he  had  secured  for  the  Church  of  Eng- 
land a  dignified  and  honored  place  among  the 
Churches  of  Christendom.  He  had  divided  all 
the  southern  and  eastern  part  of  the  island  into 
permanent  dioceses,  largely  on  the  lines  of  the 
ancient  kingdoms ;  and  he  had  prepared  the  way 
for  the  introduction  of  the  parochial  system,  which 
tradition  indeed  ascribes  to  him,  but  which,  in  its 
details,  is  certainly  the  work  of  a  later  generation. 
Nor  must  we  forget  the  impulse  which  he  gave 
to  learning.  Himself  no  mean  scholar,  he  founded 
schools  of  learning  at  Canterbury  and  elsewhere, 
where  Greek  and  mathematics,  as  well  as  theology 
and  canon  law,  were  studied ;  he  left  behind  him 
a  penitential,  which  bears  witness  to  the  way  in 
which  he  contended  with  the  practical  evils  of  his 
time ;  and  to  the  impulse  given  by  his  devotion 


THE  ANGLO-SAXON  CHURCH.  83 


and  his  diligence  is  doubtless  due  much  of  the 
missionary  zeal  which  marks  the  time  that  fol- 
lowed him.  "  Both  his  character  and  his  work," 
writes  the  Bishop  of  Oxford,  "  seem  to  place  him 
among  the  first  and  the  greatest  of  the  saints 
whom  God  has  used  for  the  building  up  of  the 
Church  and  the  development  of  the  culture  of  the 
world." 

On  lines  thus  marked  out  the  English  Church 
went  on  with  its  work.  We  have  noted  how  its 
development  preceded  that  of  the  kingdom,  and 
how  it  gave  a  tone  to  the  national  life  rather  than 
received  one  from  it.  It  may  not  be  amiss  to  re- 
mind ourselves  how  much  this  means.  For  al- 
though, as  has  been  said,  the  early  bishops  may 
seem  to  have  been  little  more  than  court-chaplains, 
yet  the  Christianity  of  our  Anglo-Saxon  ancestors 
was  not  a  court-religion ;  nor,  on  the  other  hand, 
was  the  Church  obliged  to  take  up  the  position 
of  a  defender  of  the  people  against  the  tyranny 
of  their  rulers.  There  was  a  strong  democratic 
element  in  those  little  kingdoms,  which  indeed 
the  Teutonic  emigrants  had  brought  with  them 
from  their  former  homes ;  and  politically  the  town 
preceded  the  kingdom ;  the  realm  of  England, 
like  the  states  of  New  England  and  the  nation  of 
the  United  States,  was  a  growth  from  beneath. 
But  the  Church  of  England  was  a  growth  from 
above ;  the  diocese   preceded   the   parish ;  the 


84 


THE  ANGLO-SAXON  CHURCH. 


bishop  had  a  general  jurisdiction,  and  his  clergy 
were  rather  missionaries  at  large  until  duties  were 
assigned  them  by  the  bishop,  acting  on  the  nomi- 
nation of  the  lords  of  manors,  over  their  respective 
parishes,  the  limits  of  which  depended  upon  those 
of  the  towns.  And  many  of  the  bishopstools 
were  not  in  great  and  important  places,  and  the 
civil  capital  has  never  been  the  metropolitical  city. 
Moreover,  the  clergy  of  England  have  from  the 
first  been  a  part  of  the  people,  and  have  not 
formed  a  separate  caste,  with  different  civil  in- 
terests. And  so  it  has  happened  that  the  religious 
life  and  the  religious  organization  of  the  country 
have  remained  through  many  political  changes, 
and  that  the  influence  of  bishops  and  clergy  has 
been  constantly  good  and  constantly  respected. 
Thus,  while  all  the  rest  of  Western  Christendom 
accepted  imperialism  in  Church  and  in  State, 
England  always  claimed,  and  nearly  always  main- 
tained, her  independence ;  the  freedom  of  the 
Church  constantly  defended  the  freedom  of  the 
State. 

IV. 

Upon  the  completion  of  the  organization  of  the 
English  Church  there  followed,  as  has  been  sug- 
gested, a  time  of  quiet  growth  and  of  devotion  to 
learning.  The  name  which  stands  out  promi- 
nently now  is  that  of  Bede,  of  whom  all  succeeding 


THE  ANGLO-SAXON  CHURCH.  85 


generations  have  spoken  as  the  Venerable  ;  his 
home  for  fifty-four  years  was  in  the  monastery  at 
Jarrow,  near  the  Scottish  boundary.  His  was  a 
life  of  quiet  diligence,  unambitious  and  affection- 
ate, the  only  wish  of  which  was  to  do  something 
which  would  be  of  use.  If  he  studied  and  wrote 
theology,  it  was  that  he  might  make  the  learning 
of  the  fathers  of  avail  for  the  needs  of  his  coun- 
trymen ;  if  he  committed  the  history  of  his  own 
day  to  writing,  it  was  that  he  might  bear  witness 
to  future  generations  of  what  God  had  done. 
With  a  charming  simplicity,  an  unaffected  patriot- 
ism, and  an  unfailing  faith,  he  used  his  abilities 
for  the  glory  of  his  Master  and  for  the  good  of  the 
Church  ;  and  his  name  well  stands  to-day,  where 
he  could  never  have  expected  to  see  it,  at  the  very 
beginning  of  the  long  line  of  English  writers. 
Few  scenes  are  more  touching  than  that  of  his 
death  on  the  eve  of  the  Ascension-day  ;  as  in  the 
neighboring  chapel  they  were  about  to  sing  the 
antiphon,  "  We  beseech  Thee  leave  us  not  or- 
phans," he  roused  himself  to  dictate  the  last  words 
of  his  English  version  of  St.  John's  Gospel,  and 
then,  as  the  music  of  the  choir  reached  his  ears, 
he  began  the  Gloria,  and  "  breathed  his  last  when 
he  had  named  the  Holy  Spirit."  Nor  may  we  for- 
get Caedmon,  the  rustic  Northumbrian,  who  be- 
lieved that  he  was  divinely  taught  to  sing,  and  who 
told  in  the  simple  rhythm  of  that  day  the  story  of 


86  THE  ANGLO-SAXON  CHURCH. 


the  Scriptures  and  of  God's  dealings  with  men ; 
nor  how  the  close  of  the  life  of  this  first  of  Eng- 
lish poets,  told  by  the  first  of  English  historians, 
so  closely  resembles  that  which  another  should 
soon  tell  of  Bede  himself.  And,  though  he  did 
not  write  in  the  vernacular,  England  must  ever 
honor  Alcuin,  the  great  theologian  of  the  cathe- 
dral school  at  York,  called  by  Charles  the  Great 
to  his  court,  the  restorer  of  learning  in  France  and 
Germany,  a  man  remarkable  alike  as  a  teacher 
and  as  a  writer.  These  men,  and  those  who  were 
associated  with  them,  were  the  crown  of  English 
learning  in  the  eighth  century. 

As  a  restorer  of  learning  some  two  centuries 
later,  it  may  not  be  unfitting  to  speak  here  of 
King  Alfred,  successor  of  the  Egbert  of  Wessex 
who  founded  the  one  kingdom  of  England.  He 
was,  says  a  great  historian,  "  the  most  perfect 
character  in  history — a  saint  without  superstition, 
a  scholar  without  ostentation,  a  warrior  all  of 
whose  wars  were  fought  in  defence  of  his  country, 
a  conqueror  whose  laurels  were  never  stained  by 
cruelty,  a  prince  never  cast  down  by  adversity, 
never  lifted  up  by  insolence  in  the  hour  of  tri- 
umph." "  His  virtue,"  proceeds  the  same  writer, 
"  like  the  virtues  of  Washington,  consisted  in  no 
marvellous  displays  of  superhuman  genius,  but  in 
the  simple,  straightforward  discharge  of  the  duty 
of  the  moment."    In  all  his  life  and  his  work  he 


THE  AXCLO-SAXON  CHURCH. 


87 


was  a  veritable  nursing-father  of  the  Church  of 
England.  But  the  Church  owes  him  most  for  his 
devotion  to  learning  and  his  determination  that 
all  his  people  should  well  understand  what  was 
written  in  their  own  tongue.  He  himself  trans- 
lated and  enriched  Boethius  and  Orosius  and 
Bede,  and  gave  a  new  tone  to  the  Anglo-Saxon 
Chronicle.  With  him,  in  one  sense,  English  his- 
tory, as  the  history  of  one  people,  begins  ;  with  him, 
too,  in  an  important  sense,  English  literature  has 
its  beginning ;  and  Alfred  was  the  father  of  the 
English  people,  and  has  a  name  high  among  Eng- 
lish writers,  because  he  was  a  faithful  son  of  the 
English  Church. 

But  before  Alfred's  day  the  Danish  invasions 
had  begun,  and  the  quiet  life  of  England,  espe- 
cially in  the  north,  had  been  disturbed.  In  those 
troubled  times,  great  names  do  not  rise  up  before 
us  as  in  the  days  of  foundation  and  growth  at 
which  we  have  been  glancing.  The  time  was 
drawing  near  when  a  conqueror  was  to  come 
from  without,  and  while  he  should  not  put  an  end 
to  either  the  political  or  the  ecclesiastical  life  of 
England,  should  yet  produce  a  change  so  impor- 
tant that  it  might  well  be  called  a  revolution.  Of 
the  preparations  for  the  changes,  which  really  have 
not  much  to  do  with  the  history  of  the  early 
English  Church,  it  is  not  necessary  to  speak  here 
and  now. 


88  THE  ANGLO-SAXON  CHURCH. 


But  one  would  be  doing  scant  justice  to  that 
Church  who  should  not  have  a  word  to  say  in  re- 
gard to  what  was  done  by  the  missionaries  whom, 
in  the  days  of  her  early  faith,  she  sent  out  to  the 
heathen.  We  need  not  wonder  that  men  went 
from  Kent  to  Essex  and  to  Sussex,  or  from  North- 
umbria  to  Mercia,  to  tell  their  neighbors  of  the 
truth  which  had  been  brought  to  them ;  and  per- 
haps the  labors  of  Wilfrid,  when  he  preached  to 
the  Frisians  and  to  the  men  of  Wessex,  may 
seem  to  us  no  more  than  the  work  of  an  energetic 
but  disappointed  man,  who  felt  that  he  must  be 
laboring  somewhere ;  in  reality,  however,  these 
were  but  examples  of  what  the  Church  of  the 
Angles  and  the  Saxons  in  England  seems  to  have 
been  always  ready  to  do.  Willibrord,  educated 
at  Ripon  by  Wilfrid  and  later  in  Ireland,  filled 
with  a  missionary  inspiration,  became  the  apostle 
of  the  Frisians,  and  preached  to  the  Danes  and  the 
Franks,  and  became  the  Archbishop  of  Utrecht. 
And  Winfrid  of  Wessex,  known  to  history  as 
Boniface,  longing  for  the  labors  of  a  missionary's 
life,  became  the  apostle  of  Germany,  worked 
most  indefatigably  and  successfully,  attained  great 
honor  and  influence,  gained  a  martyr's  crown,  and 
left  an  example  to  those  who  came  after  him. 

V. 

It  is  well  that  the  story  of  the  early  English 
Church,  which  began  with  events  so  strangely 


THE  ANGLO-SAXON  CHURCH.  89 


combining  the  romantic  with  the  miraculous, 
should  end  with  a  person  about  whom  there 
gather  stories  of  romance  and  of  miracle.  It  was 
a  wonderful  change  that  took  place  from  the  time 
when  a  Frankish  princess,  with  her  chaplain,  wor- 
shipped in  the  little  St.  Martin's  Church  at  CanteF 
bury,  to  the  time  when  the  fair  minster  of  West 
London  rose  in  place  of  the  humbler  edifice  built 
by  the  first  Christian  king  of  Essex  on  Thorney 
Island  near  the  Thames  ;  a  wonderful  change  from 
Ethelbert  the  heathen  lord  of  Kent  to  Edward  the 
sainted  king  of  England.  The  light  which  blazed 
up  at  one  place  and  another  among  Angles  and 
Saxons  and  Jutes  had  illumined  the  whole  land, 
and,  though  dimmed  by  the  violence  of  enemies, 
had  never  ceased  to  burn.  And  now  that  a  great 
change  was  to  take  place,  the  devotion  of  the  last 
king  of  Saxon  England  (if  one  may  use  the 
phrase)  showed  itself  in  his  determination  to  com- 
plete what  he  considered  the  great  duty  of  his 
life.  For  fourteen  years  he  pushed  the  work  on 
the  great  abbey  at  Westminster,  some  of  the 
foundations  and  arches  of  which  are  still  seen 
beneath  or  near  the  more  glorious  building  with 
which  a  later  age  has  replaced  it.  The  Witan  of 
all  England  met  to  hallow  the  new  minster  on  the 
Innocents'  Day  of  the  year  1065  ;  but  the  king, 
who  had  appeared  in  public  on  the  preceding  day, 
was  not  able  to  be  present.    Before  the  Christmas 


90  THE  ANGLO-SAXON  CHURCH. 


festivities  were  over,  he  was  stricken  with  death  ; 
and  on  the  festival  of  the  Epiphany,  1066,  "  the 
last  royal  son  of  Woden  was  borne  to  his  grave." 
It  may  be  that  Edward  was  not  a  great  man  or  a 
great  ruler ;  it  may  be  that  it  would  have  been 
better  for  his  kingdom  and  no  worse  for  himself 
if  he  had  devoted  his  energies  to  something  be- 
sides the  erection  of  a  stately  church  in  the  hope 
that  he  might  thereby  secure  the  salvation  of  his 
soul ;  but  whose  heart  is  not  touched  as  he  thinks 
of  the  king  of  England,  who,  on  the  very  eve  of 
the  Norman  conquest,  was  laid  to  rest  in  the 
shrine  which  he  had  just  completed  ?  Who  that 
sees  the  receptacle  of  his  ashes,  alone  of  all  the 
feretories  of  English  saints,  still  in  a  place  of  honor 
in  the  house  of  God,  and  that  remembers  the 
reverence  with  which  generations  have  treated  it, 
does  not  feel  that,  after  all,  there  was  something 
appropriate  in  the  time  of  the  death  of  Edward 
the  Confessor  and  in  the  place  of  his  burial  ?  And 
when  we  think  that  the  great  abbey  is  the  resting- 
place  of  a  long  line  of  kings,  successors  of  Ethel- 
bert  and  Alfred  and  Edward,  though  not  because 
they  were  of  their  blood,  and  that  there  lie  under 
the  same  roof  the  bones  of  the  good  and  the  great 
and  the  wise  who  have  entered  into  the  labors  of 
the  good  and  great  and  wise  of  the  earlier  days — 
when  we  recall  the  constant  worship  which  has 
been  offered  in  that  hallowed  spot,  and  how  holy 


THE  ANGLO-SAXON  CHURCH. 


91 


men  have  stood  in  their  place  to  guide  the  devo- 
tions and  instruct  the  souls  of  a  Christian  English 
people  through  all  these  centuries — when  we  see 
the  glorious  chapter- house,  so  long  the  place  of 
meeting  of  England's  Commons,  and  the  palace 
of  Westminster  hard  by  which  now  supplies  its 
place,  where  are  carried  out  the  principles  of  gov- 
ernment which  found  expression  in  the  council  at 
Hertford  and  in  the  assemblies  in  which  the  kings 
consulted  with  their  bishops  and  their  lords — 
who  does  not  feel  that  the  history  of  the  earlier 
England  fitly  passes  at  Westminster  with  hardly 
a  break  into  the  history  of  the  later  England,  from 
St.  Edward  the  English  Confessor  to  William  the 
Norman  Conqueror  ? 


I  have  thus  ventured  to  trace  out  the  history  of 
the  Anglo-Saxon  Church  by  reminding  you  of 
Augustine  at  Canterbury,  of  Wilfrid  at  Whitby, 
of  Theodore  at  Hertford,  of  Bede  at  Jarrow,  and 
of  King  Edward  at  Westminster.  The  scenes  at 
which  we  have  looked  may  have  served  to  remind 
us  how  archbishops  and  kings,  missionaries  and 
scholars,  monks  and  statesmen,  worked  together 
in  the  making  of  the  Church  of  England.  And 
the  whole  of  the  period  which  belongs  to  our  sub- 
ject this  evening  is  full  of  like  events,  less  promi- 
nent perhaps,  but  no  less  really  affecting  the  cen- 
turies that  were  to  follow.    At  times  the  story 


92  THE  ANGLO-SAXON  CHURCH. 


may  suggest  to  us  that  good  men  often  do  things 
which  call  for  an  apology,  and  that  it  may  not  be 
well  to  criticise  too  closely  the  characters  and  the 
actions  of  some  of  those  whom  we  honor  with 
the  title  of  saints ;  but  on  the  other  hand  we 
cannot  refrain  from  paying  the  tribute  of  rever- 
ential respect  to  those  simple-hearted  and  faithful 
kings  and  bishops,  for  whom  religion  was  the 
whole  of  life,  and  who  gladly  served  the  Lord 
Christ  from  love  of  Him  Who  had  saved  them. 
And  it  was — who  can  doubt  it  ? — because  of  the 
completeness  of  their  devotion  that  their  "  work 
of  faith  and  labour  of  love  and  patience  of  hope  " 
were  so  evidently  accepted  and  blessed.  As  we 
read  Homer  with  an  ever-increasing  sense  of  the 
beauty  of  "  the  dawn  of  history's  morning,"  as 
there  always  breathes  from  the  verses  of  Chaucer 
the  sweet  freshness  of  the  spring  of  poetry,  so  as 
we  follow  the  chronicles  of  the  days  when  Chris- 
tianity was  brought  into  the  England  and  to  the 
Englishmen  of  history,  we  get  much  of  the  inspira- 
tion of  that  loving  devotion  and  patient  faith 
which  we  hardly  dare  hope  to  find  reproduced  in 
our  own  times.  We  see  our  holy  religion  accepted 
by  warlike  Teutonic  tribes,  without  the  interven- 
tion of  force  or  arms,  simply  because  it  was  quiet 
and  self-denying  and  pure  ;  we  see  it  changing  their 
temper  towards  the  Britons  whom  they  had  driven 
from  their  homes,  because  they  had,  though  from 


THE  ANGLO-SAXON  CHURCH. 


93 


another  source,  received  the  faith  of  their  con- 
quered foes;  we  see  it  making  the  numerous  king- 
doms of  Angles  and  Saxons  and  Jutes  into  one 
nation,  the  national  unity  being  based  upon  the 
ecclesiastical  ;  we  see  the  Britons  drawn  with  the 
English  into  the  visible  unity  of  the  Catholic 
Church  of  the  West ;  and  we  see  the  Church  of 
England  maintaining  her  rights  as  a  branch  of  the 
Church  Catholic  against  the  already  immoderate 
claims  of  the  see  of  Rome.  And  we  see  the  light 
of  learning  which  had  flashed  from  the  emerald 
plains  of  Ireland  and  from  the  rocks  of  Iona,  shin- 
ing now  from  England  and  dispelling  the  darkness 
which  had  begun  to  settle  on  portions  of  the  con- 
tinent. And  thus  we  see  the  English  Church, 
strong  in  faith  and  wise  in  holy  learning,  able  to 
bear  the  shocks  which  were  to  come  upon  it  and 
to  defend  the  sacred  deposit  of  faith  and  order 
which  it  had  received.  It  is  indeed  no  ordinary 
history  which  we  have  been  studying,  as  we  have 
watched  the  building  of  a  plain  but  solid  sub- 
structure, which  rests  firmly  upon  the  one  founda- 
tion than  which  man  can  lay  no  other,  and  which 
supports  in  safety  a  stately  pile  that  ministers  to 
the  needs  of  human  souls  and  echoes  with  the 
unceasing  praises  of  Almighty  God. 


£be  morman  perioo  of  tbe  English 
Cburcb. 


LECTURE  III. 


BY  ALEXANDER  V.  G.  ALLEN,  D.D., 
Professor  in  the  Episcopal  Theological  School,  in  Cambridge, 

Mass. 

THE  NORMAN  PERIOD  OF  THE  ENGLISH 
CHURCH 

The  Norman  people  came  to  England  with 
William  the  Conqueror  in  1066.  Their  first  ap- 
pearance in  Europe  dates  from  the  middle  of  the 
ninth  century,  or  some  two  hundred  years  earlier 
than  their  conquest  of  England.  They  came  from 
the  Scandinavian  countries  in  the  north,  what  are 
now  the  kingdoms  of  Denmark,  Sweden  and  Nor- 
way. They  were  a  fierce  and  warlike  people, 
whose  empire  was  the  sea.  At  a  time  when,  to 
the  other  people  of  Europe,  the  ocean  was  a  bar- 
rier of  separation,  it  was  to  the  Normans  a  high- 
way and  channel  of  communication.  Leaving 
their  homes  in  the  north,  in  the  ninth  century 
they  had  gone  into  France  and  taken  possession 
of  that  province  now  known  as  Normandy.  In 
the  early  part  of  the  eleventh  century  they  had 
wandered  into  the  south,  where  they  had  made 
97 


98 


THE  NORMAN  PERIOD 


themselves  masters  of  southern  Italy,  including 
Sicily.  In  their  love  of  conquest  they  had  also 
discovered  and  settled  Iceland,  they  had  planted 
colonies  in  Greenland,  and  by  some  it  is  believed 
that  they  had  landed  in  North  America,  and  had 
even  made  some  settlement  on  the  coast  of  New 
England.* 

The  Normans  were  a  Teutonic  people,  and 
therefore  closely  related  by  blood  to  the  English 
and  the  Germans.  But  close  as  may  be  the  race 
connection,  the  difference  between  them  and  the 
other  Teutonic  races  is  great  and  striking.  Their 
peculiarities  are  brought  out  most  clearly  in 
France,  where  they  had  been  settled  for  two 
hundred  years  before  the  conquest  of  England. 
They  had  taken  on  the  refinements  of  civilization, 
as  civilization  then  was  ;  they  threw  themselves 

*  It  is  a  mistake,  however,  to  speak  of  the  Northmen  as 
having  discovered  America.  The  word  discovery  in  its  true 
historical  use  applies  only  to  Europe  in  the  sixteenth  century 
— to  the  age  and  people  which  were  waiting  to  carry  on  the 
advancing  civilization.  A  discovery  also  implies  some  con- 
scious, intelligent  purpose,  not  an  accidental  stumbling  upon 
a  territory,  which  incident  was,  moreover,  followed  by  no 
result.  If  it  were  right  to  speak  of  the  Northmen  as  having 
discovered  America,  it  would  be  still  more  correct  to  speak 
Of  the  Indians  as  its  first  discoverers  ;  and  then  it  might  as 
well  be  admitted  that  it  was  never  discovered  at  all.  It  was 
always  known  to  some  people  or  race  as  far  back  as  history 
reaches. 


OF  THE  ENGLISH  CHURCH. 


99 


into  the  life  of  the  continent,  and  whatever  was 
in  vogue  at  the  time  they  appropriated  as  their 
own,  and  carried  out  to  its  full  development.  Just 
as  they  had  conquered  for  themselves  a  home 
in  countries  which  did  not  belong  to  them,  so  they 
also  entered  into  the  life  of  the  age,  accepting 
its  features,  its  ideals,  its  lines  of  movement  with 
as  genuine  an  enthusiasm  as  if  they  had  originated 
them  from  their  own  consciousness.  They  be- 
came the  most  devoted  adherents  of  the  papacy 
to  be  found  in  Europe.  In  Italy,  so  great  was 
their  reverence  for  the  Bishop  of  Rome,  they 
formed  a  sort  of  body-guard  to  the  pope,  taking 
an  oath  to  defend  the  papacy  against  all  its  foes. 
Hildebrand  found  them  most  useful  allies  in  the 
maintenance  of  his  policy  for  subjecting  the  States 
of  Europe  to  the  obedience  of  the  Church.  The 
Normans  being,  as  it  were,  a  people  without  a 
home,  were  emancipated  from  local  or  national 
restrictions  ;  they  were  cosmopolitans,  cherishing 
what  was  large  and  universal  in  scope  or  ten- 
dency, with  an  admiration  for  power  and  splendor 
without  reference  to  its  national  bearings.  They 
were  an  imaginative  people,  instinctively  giving 
themselves  up  to  the  cultivation  of  art,  which 
then  assumed  the  phase  of  architecture.  The 
cathedrals,  the  monasteries,  the  churches  which 
rose  in  Normandy  may  be  regarded  as  expressing 
their  religious   and  imaginative  genius.  More 


IOO 


THE  NORMAN  rERIOD 


than  any  other  part  of  Europe  did  Normandy 
abound  in  ecclesiastical  foundations  after  the 
model  of  the  rising  Gothic  style,  which  there 
reached  its  fullest  growth,  producing  monuments 
of  beauty  which  are  unexcelled. 

When  the  crusades  began  in  the  end  of  the 
eleventh  century,  whose  object  was  the  chivalrous 
attempt  to  recover  the  Holy  Sepulchre  at  Jerusa- 
lem from  the  hand  of  the  infidel  Moslem,  it  was 
the  Normans  who  were  foremost  in  responding  to 
the  call  of  the  pope,  and  who  first  planted  them- 
selves as  conquerors  in  the  sacred  city.  And, 
indeed,  throughout  the  crusades,  it  is  either  the 
Normans  or  peoples  of  the  Latin  races,  not  Ger- 
mans or  English,  who  are  chiefly  identified  with 
this  vast  movement  in  the  interest  of  an  ideal 
purpose.  Let  us  add  that  the  Normans  were  a 
peculiarly  religious  people  in  what  are  called  the 
ages  of  faith.  Here,  too,  they  showed  the  same 
disposition  as  in  other  things.  They  accepted  the 
forms  of  the  monastic  life  as  expressing  the  high- 
est type  of  sanctity  and  devotion.  Wherever  they 
went,  they  built  magnificent  monasteries  as  they 
built  magnificent  churches,  every  great  feudal 
lord,  it  is  said,  planting  a  monastic  establishment 
upon  his  domain.  The  Normans  easily  subscribed 
the  monastic  vows  of  chastity,  poverty  and  obe- 
dience, sacrificing  that  element  of  being  or  exist- 
ence which  we  call  vitality  or  vigorous  personality, 


OF  THE  ENGLISH  CHURCH. 


as  readily  as  they  also  sacrificed  home  and  nation- 
ality in  the  love  of  what  was  foreign,  or  splendid, 
or  cosmopolitan. 

Here  lay  also  their  weakness.  Nowhere  did 
they  build  up  a  nation.  It  has  been  their  fate  to 
be  merged  in  other  peoples;  they  have  disap- 
peared in  Italy  ;  in  France  and  in  England  they 
have  been  fused  with  the  original  population. 
The  test  of  a  people's  vitality  is  seen  in  the  re- 
tention of  their  language  ;  Germany  and  England 
have  shown  the  purity  and  tenacity  of  their  orig- 
inal stock  by  retaining  their  language,  despite  all 
foreign  influences.  The  Normans  gave  up  their 
own  language  for  the  language  of  the  people 
they  conquered.  Not  only  did  they  fail  to  build 
up  a  nation  ;  they  weakened  by  their  emigration 
the  countries  which  were  their  original  homes, 
so  that  Denmark  and  Sweden  and  Norway  lost 
the  future  which  might  have  been  theirs,  and  have 
never  played  an  important  part  in  the  history  of 
Europe. 

Such  were  the  people  who  came  over  into  Eng- 
land from  Normandy  in  France,  with  William  the 
Conqueror  in  the  year  1066.  A  greater  contrast 
than  that  between  the  English — the  Anglo-Sax- 
ons, as  they  are  generally  called — and  the  Nor- 
man conquerors  it  is  hard  to  imagine.  Hitherto 
England  had  taken  little  part  in  the  great  move- 
ments going  on  upon  the  Continent.    The  insu- 


102 


THE  NORMAN  PERIOD 


lated  character  of  the  country  showed  itself  in  the 
insulation  and  exclusiveness  which  marks  the  char- 
acter of  the  people.  England  pursued  its  own 
way  through  the  early  Middle  Ages,  unaffected 
by  the  changes  in  France,  or  Germany,  or  Italy. 
She  knew  but  little  of  the  ambition  of  popes,  or 
the  methods  by  which  the  Bishop  of  Rome  was 
recasting  into  legislation  the  moral  sentiment 
which  went  forth  toward  his  person  as  the  Vicar 
of  Christ  upon  earth.  Church  and  State  in  Eng- 
land during  the  Anglo-Saxon  period,  were  in  har- 
monious relations.  No  one  was  then  asking  the 
momentous  question  of  a  later  age,  whether  the 
Church  should  rule  the  State,  or  the  State  the 
Church  ;  it  was  hard  to  tell  them  apart,  as  when 
the  dignitaries  of  Church  and  State  met  in  one 
common  assembly,  legislating  alike  for  the  Ec- 
clcsia  or  the  nation.  There  was  a  form  of  mo- 
nasticism  in  England,  but  it  was  of  the  mildest 
type,  not  adhering  to  the  Benedictine  rule.  The 
clergy  also  were  for  the  most  part  married,  nor 
did  their  conception  of  the  Christian  ideal  lead  to 
the  exaggeration  of  celibacy,  as  the  equivalent  of 
chastity.  There  was,  in  a  word,  nothing  cosmo- 
politan about  the  English;  they  were  then,  as 
they  have  been  ever  since,  a  practical  people, 
cherishing  no  visionary  schemes,  not  endowed 
with  a  glowing  imagination,  rude  in  their  archi- 
tecture, their  prevailing  sin,  it  is  often  remarked, 


OF  THE  ENGLISH  CHURCH. 


103 


being  gluttony — a  type  of  pleasure  which  they 
indulged  in  at  their  numerous  and  hospitable 
feasts. 

All  this  was  changed  by  the  coming  of  the  Nor- 
mans. The  conquest  was  so  complete  that  Eng- 
land now  wheels  into  line  as  one  of  the  papal 
states  of  Europe,  accepting  more  entirely  than 
almost  any  other  country  the  authority  of  the 
Bishop  of  Rome,  taking  on  foreign  fashions,  and 
embroiled  in  the  politics  of  Christendom.  The 
change  was  easily  effected.  William,  the  Nor- 
man conqueror,  had  received  the  approval  and 
even  the  blessing  of  the  pope  on  his  attempt  to 
subjugate  the  English  people,  and  to  take  pos- 
session of  their  crown,  sailing  for  England,  it  is 
said,  with  a  banner  blessed  for  the  undertak- 
ing by  Alexander,  the  Bishop  of  Rome.  It  is 
unnecessary  to  recount  here  the  details  of  the 
story  of  his  conquest.  The  resistance  which  he 
met  with  from  the  English  people  was  overcome 
by  a  fierce  and  cruel  determination  to  make  the 
country  entirely  his  own.  He  assumed  from  the 
first  the  feudal  principle  that  all  the  land  belonged 
to  him  by  sovereign  right ;  he  proceeded  at  once 
to  dispossess  its  English  owners  and  to  assign 
their  estates  to  his  Norman  followers.  Although 
the  process  was  a  gradual  one,  it  went  on,  until 
the  ejection  of  a  great  nation  of  landowners  from 
their  land  was  accomplished.     Nor  was  all  this 


104 


THE  NORMAN  PERIOD 


effected  without  enormous  suffering.  "  No  book 
in  the  world,"  it  has  been  said,  "  covers  so  huge  a 
mass  of  misery,  thinly  disguised  under  its  cold, 
curt  phraseology,  as  the  great  terrier  of  the  Nor- 
man king's  English  estate,"  to  which  the  English 
people  gave  the  name  of  Domesday.  A  Norman 
nobility  now  displaced  the  Englishmen  of  high 
rank,  who  sank  into  the  lower  grades  of  tenants ; 
the  Episcopal  seats  throughout  England  were  filled 
with  Norman  bishops,  with  only  one  exception  ; 
the  English  Archbishop  of  Canterbury  was  re- 
moved, and  in  his  room  was  placed  an  Italian, 
Lanfranc,  who  came  from  the  monastery  of  Bee, 
in  Normandy.  There  were  two  races  in  the  land, 
the  English  and  the  French,  as  the  Normans 
called  themselves.  The  Normans  despised  the 
Anglo-Saxons,  looking  down  with  contempt  upon 
their  rude  and  narrow  ways,  while  the  English  or 
Saxons  returned  their  contempt  with  bitter  hat- 
red In  consequence  of  the  frequent  assassina- 
tions of  the  Normans,  a  law  was  framed  which 
made  the  local  hundred  responsible  for  every  mur- 
der if  the  murderer  was  not  found,  while  every 
murdered  man  was  held  to  be  a  Norman,  unless 
he  could  be  proved  to  be  an  Englishman. 

This  was  the  age  when  the  great  castles  were 
erected  all  over  England.  The  traveller  who 
admires  to-day  their  beauty  as  a  feature  of  the 
English  landscape  does  not  trouble  himself  to  re- 


OF  THE  ENGLISH  CHURCH. 


I05 


call  their  origin.  The  hard  and  cruel  necessities 
of  a  former  age  become  the  luxuries  and  play- 
things of  later  generations.  These  castles  were 
built  by  the  Normans  in  self-defence ;  they  domi- 
nated the  country  around  ;  they  were  the  strong- 
holds of  Norman  tyranny  and  rapine.  Horrors 
were  perpetrated  in  their  dungeons  which  never 
saw  the  light  of  day. 

"Every  powerful  man,"  says  the  last  English  chronicler, 
"built  his  castle,  and  they  filled  the  land  full  of  castles. 
They  heavily  afflicted  the  poor  men  of  the  land  with  castle- 
building,  and  when  the  castles  were  built  they  filled  them 
with  devils  and  evil  men.  Then,  both  by  night  and  day, 
they  took  the  men  they  supposed  to  possess  any  goods, 
country  men  and  women,  and  threw  them  into  prison,  to  ob- 
tain their  gold  and  silver  and  torture  them  with  unutterable 
torture,  for  never  were  martyrs  tortured  as  they  were.  .  .  . 
They  were  constantly  levying  tributes  on  the  towns ;  and 
when  the  wretched  men  had  no  more  to  give,  they  destroyed 
and  burnt  the  towns;  and  well  might  you  travel  all  day  and 
never  find  a  man  settled  in  a  town  or  land  cultivated,  so  that 
corn  was  dear  ;  of  flesh  and  cheese  and  butter  none  was  there 
in  the  land.  Wretched  men  starved  of  hunger.  Some  went 
begging  through  the  country  who  formerly  had  been  rich 
men.  Some  fled  the  country.  Never  was  greater  wretched- 
ness in  the  land  and  never  did  heathen  men  cause  worse 
evils  than  these  did.  So  that  men  said  openly  that  Christ 
and  His  saints  were  asleep." 

The  old  England  came  to  an  end  under  the  Nor- 
man kings,  and  these  are  the  last  words  of  the 
Anglo-Saxon  chronicler. 


io6 


THE  NORMAN  PERIOD 


The  Norman  lords  built  their  castles  and  the 
Norman  bishops  raised  their  great  cathedrals. 
These  wonderful  structures,  like  the  castles,  have 
now  become  almost  a  constituent  part  of  English 
scenery.  The  English  nation  has  forgotten  the 
misery  of  their  origin.  Even  nature  itself  has  ac- 
cepted them,  as  if  man,  in  rivalry  with  the  work 
of  the  Creator,  had  done  something  of  which  the 
heavens,  that  look  down  upon  them,  might  be 
proud.  The  cathedrals  of  the  Norman  bishops, 
even  the  churches  in  towns  and  villages,  the  splen- 
did monasteries,  are  relics  of  the  Norman  conquest. 
The  older  churches  of  the  Anglo-Saxon  period 
were  destroyed  to  make  place  for  the  grander 
architecture  ;  only  a  few  remain  to  tell  us  what 
they  were  like  ;  they  were  despised  by  the  Nor- 
mans because  they  were  small.  But  even  with 
all  their  beauty  and  splendor  and  vast  proportions, 
these  things  are  not  the  typical  utterance  of  the 
English  mind.  Even  if  we  forget  their  origin, 
Durham,  and  Canterbury,  and  Salisbury,  and 
Winchester  still  remind  us  of  the  age  when  Eng- 
land became  for  the  first  time  in  her  history  a 
constituent  part  of  Roman  Catholic  Christendom, 
gradually  learning  to  forget  the  simplicity  of  her 
earlier  Church,  in  the  grandeur  and  comprehen- 
siveness of  the  papal  empire. 

Other  features  of  the  period  might  be  inter- 
esting and  instructive  to  study,  especially  the  fill- 


OF  THE  ENGLISH  CHURCH. 


i  tv- 


ing  up  of  England  with  the  various  branches  of 
monasticism,  which  the  foreign  invaders  brought 
with  them  from  France  or  Italy.  For  it  is  a  cir- 
cumstance not  without  its  significance,  that  no 
great  monastic  order  has  ever  originated  in  Eng- 
land. The  Cistercian  order,  the  order  of  Clugny, 
the  order  of  the  Carthusians  or  of  the  Carmel- 
ites, at  a  later  time  the  mendicant  orders,  Fran- 
ciscan and  Dominican,  none  of  these  sprang  from 
the  religious  genius  or  aspiration  of  the  English 
Church  ;  they  were  importations  from  Italy  or 
France  or  Spain.  Their  monastic  houses  were 
endowed  with  all  the  imaginative  beauty  of  the 
Norman  mind  ;  their  sites  reveal  a  wonderful  ap- 
preciation of  the  beauty  of  nature,  and  the  Eng- 
lish people  are  still  proud  of  their  ruins.  Fur- 
ness  and  Fountains  and  Melrose  and  hundreds  of 
others,  we  may  admit,  did  good  in  their  day  ;  for 
the  Normans  as  monks  were  a  better  people  than 
the  lay  lords  who  built  the  castles.  But  these  in- 
stitutions are  not  indigenous  to  English  soil; 
they  do  not  reflect  the  characteristic  religious  life 
or  purpose  of  the  English  people.  The  time  came 
when  the  English  nation  swept  them  away,  while 
hardly  a  voice  was  heard  to  protest  in  their  behalf. 

Of  all  these  foreign  institutions  and  methods, 
one  general  remark  holds  true — they  enlarged  the 
spirit  of  the  English  Church.  There  were  in  them 
seeds  of  evil,  but  there  were  also  seeds  of  good. 


I  OS 


THE  NORMAN  PERIOD 


Feudalism,  for  example,  which  was  introduced 
into  England  with  the  Normans,  though  in  a 
modified  shape,  cultivated  a  spirit  of  loyalty  to  an 
over-lord  which,  when  transferred  to  Christ,  be- 
comes the  source  of  what  is  most  beautiful  and 
vital  in  Christian  piety.  The  customs  of  chivalry, 
also  brought  in  by  the  Normans,  elevated  the  tone 
of  manners,  raised  the  ideal  of  woman,  cultivated 
the  sense  of  personal  honor,  which  forms  not  only 
an  integral  element  in  the  character  of  what  we 
call  the  gentleman,  but  an  indispensable  element 
in  all  moral  culture.  Influences  like  these  lifted 
the  Church  of  England  out  of  its  natural  exclu- 
siveness.  Left  to  itself  the  English  Church  might 
have  become  a  stunted,  narrow  institution,  feebly 
reflecting  the  spirit  of  Christianity,  feebly  nourish- 
ing the  life  of  the  nation, — not  unlike  the  Russian 
Church  of  to-day,  which  in  all  its  history  has  re- 
ceived no  life  from  without,  and  sits  weak  and 
powerless  at  the  feet  of  the  Czar. 

Of  these  institutions  and  ideals  which  are 
foreign  to  the  typical  English  mind,  the  most  im- 
portant is  the  papacy.  It  was  the  leading  conse- 
quence of  the  Norman  invasion  that  England  was 
made  an  organic  part  of  the  Latin  or  Roman 
Catholic  Church,  accepting  the  headship  of  the 
pope  over  the  State  as  well  as  over  the  Church. 
How  the  process  of  its  conquest  by  the  pope  was 
accomplished,  what  were  the  effects  on  the  English 


OF  THE  ENGLISH  CHURCH. 


1 09 


Church  and  nation,  how  at  last  this  yoke  was 
thrown  off,  is  the  story  I  propose  to  tell. 

Before  the  Norman  conquest,  and  during  the 
Anglo-Saxon  age,  there  existed  in  England,  as  on 
the  continent,  a  feeling  of  respect  and  deference 
for  the  Bishop  of  Rome.  He  was  regarded  as  the 
successor  of  St.  Peter,  and  St.  Peter  was  believed 
to  have  been  the  head  or  prince  of  the  apostles.  So 
early  as  the  eighth  century  English  bishops  had 
begun  to  take  an  oath  of  allegiance  to  the  Bishop 
of  Rome.  Indeed,  the  first  bishop  who  ever  took 
such  an  oath  was  an  Englishman,  St.  Boniface, 
known  as  the  missionary  apostle  of  Germany. 
When  he  left  England  for  Germany  to  convert 
the  new  races  from  heathenism,  he  felt  the  need 
of  some  centre,  some  responsible  head  to  whom 
he  might  offer  his  Christian  conquests,  and  thus 
connect  them  with  a  larger  Church  than  the  local 
body  which  he  represented.  This  act  of  Boniface 
may  be  regarded  as  one  illustration  out  of  many, 
of  the  working  of  that  moral  sentiment  of  rev- 
erence for  the  Bishop  of  Rome  which  existed 
among  all  the  people  of  western  Europe. 

But  the  Latin  Church  has  never  been  content 
with  moral  sentiments.  They  seem  to  the  Latin 
mind  vague,  intangible  things,  until  they  have 
been  transmuted  into  the  form  of  law.  During 
the  eighth  and  ninth  centuries,  or  in  the  age 


I  10 


THE  NORMAN  PERIOD 


when  Charlemagne  was  sole  ruler  of  the  new 
western  empire,  the  process  went  on  apace,  of  con- 
verting this  sentiment  of  reverence  for  Rome  into 
legal  statutes,  by  means  of  which  the  bishops  of 
Rome  might  govern  the  Church  in  accordance 
with  what  they  believed  to  be  the  will  of  God. 
Rome  was  in  the  habit  of  gratifying  the  sentiment 
of  reverence  toward  her  ancient  see,  by  present- 
ing to  the  bishops,  on  their  consecration,  the  pal- 
lium, as  a  token  of  her  recognition  of  their  office, 
— a  badge  of  their  relationship  through  Rome  to 
the  universal  Church.  In  that  confused  and  strug- 
gling age,  when  the  nations  had  not  yet  been 
born,  and  in  the  isolation  of  the  peoples  no  other 
bond  of  unity  existed,  the  presentation  of  the 
pallium  was  a  glimpse  into  a  larger  world,  reveal- 
ing a  grander  Church  behind  the  local  Churches 
in  the  various  kingdoms  or  states  of  western 
Europe. 

When  the  bishops  who  received  the  pallium 
took  the  oath  of  allegiance  to  Rome,  a  great  step 
forward  had  been  accomplished  in  the  process  of 
subjecting  the  Church  to  the  will  of  Rome.  But 
still,  the  oath  was  a  vague  one,  and  meant  little 
or  much  as  any  bishop  might  choose  to  interpret 
it.  In  order  to  give  the  bishop's  oath  any  real 
import,  it  was  necessary  to  define  by  legal  statute 
how  much  it  meant.  The  popes  who  inherited 
the  spirit  of  the  old  Roman  law,  were  at  no  loss  to 


OF  THE  ENGLISH  CHURCH. 


I  I  I 


determine  the  form  which  the  legislation  should 
take.  It  was  necessary,  as  they  thought,  for  the 
government  of  the  Church,  that  the  papacy  should 
constitute  a  court  of  final  appeal  in  all  grave 
cases  in  which  the  bishops  might  be  concerned. 
The  bishops  were  encouraged  to  appeal  to  Rome 
under  the  conviction  that  their  causes  would  be 
more  justly  adjudged,  than  if  they  were  decided 
by  some  aichbishop,  or  metropolitan,  or  were  re- 
ferred to  the  king's  court. 

But  how  to  accomplish  this  result  was  the  dif- 
ficulty. In  those  days,  men  did  not  reason  upon 
the  subject  and  enact  a  law  because  it  was  in  ac- 
cordance with  justice  or  right.  It  was  necessary 
to  show,  if  possible,  that  such  had  always  been 
the  law  of  the  Church  from  the  time  of  the 
apostles.  If  the  origin  of  law  could  be  buried  in 
the  mists  of  antiquity,  beyond  which  no  eye 
could  reach,  then  the  reverence  for  it  could  be 
based  upon  a  divine  right  which  none  would  dis- 
pute. 

There  were  those  in  the  ninth  century  who  were 
equal  to  the  emergency.  It  is  sad  to  relate  that 
the  papacy — the  only  high  and  universal  ideal  of 
the  middle  ages — was  driven  to  build  up  its  legal 
power  over  the  Church  by  the  most  stupendous 
fraud  which  is  known  to  history.  There  appeared 
suddenly  in  Germany,  about  the  middle  of  the 
ninth  century,  a  code  of  laws  for  the  government 


I  12 


THE  NORMAN  PERIOD 


of  the  Church,  in  which  it  was  made  to  appear 
that  the  popes  had  possessed  the  right  of  hearing 
appeals  from  the  very  time  of  the  apostles.  The 
first  bishops  of  Rome,  after  St.  Peter,  were  there 
represented  as  claiming  this  power  in  explicit 
decretals ;  and  as  they  stood  on  the  threshold  of 
the  apostolic  age,  and  embodied  its  spirit,  the 
inference  followed  that  the  appellate  jurisdiction 
of  Rome  rested  upon  divine  right,  eternal  and 
irrefragable  as  the  law  of  Christ.  The  forgery  was 
complete  and  successful.  No  one  denied  or  dis- 
puted its  authenticity;  no  one  was  learned  enough 
to  expose  the  falsehoods  or  anachronisms  with 
which  the  "  forged  decretals  "  abounded  ;  the  popes 
accepted  them  as  a  law  for  the  justification  of 
their  action. 

It  might  be  an  interesting  question  to  discuss 
what  would  have  been  the  fortunes  of  the  papacy 
without  the  forged  decretals.  It  is  doubtful  if  its 
history  could  have  been  the  same.  In  this  age 
it  is  hard  to  make  allowance  for  institutions  which 
call  themselves  divine  and  which  yet  make  use  of 
deception  to  accomplish  their  ends.  We  need  not 
ask  in  this  case  where  the  responsibility  of  the 
falsehood  lies.  Of  course,  primarily  upon  the 
monk  who,  in  the  silence  and  secrecy  of  his  cell, 
forged  the  document  which  received  universal 
credence  upon  its  appearance.  Of  the  inner  his- 
tory of  the  forgery  we  know  but  little,  nor  is  it 


OF  THE  ENGLISH  CHURCH.  1 1 3 


certain  that  the  popes  knew  it  to  be  a  fraud. 
This  pretended  legislation  fell  in  so  naturally  and 
easily  with  what  they  believed  ought  to  have 
been  the  law  of  the  Church,  that  they  may  be 
pardoned  for  the  willing  credulity  with  which  they 
accepted  and  acted  upon  its  principles.  And 
Europe  for  the  most  part  was  also  in  the  same 
situation. 

Two  hundred  years  had  passed  away  since  the 
forged  decretals  appeared  and  the  bishops  of  Rome 
had  made  little  or  no  progress  toward  the  accom- 
plishment of  their  ideal  vision.  They  desired  to 
see  the  Church  in  Europe  one  vast  organization, 
governed  by  a  responsible  head,  who  should  be 
strong  enough  to  protect  the  clergy  everwhere  in 
the  exercise  of  their  sacred  functions,  strong 
enough  to  resist  encroachments  upon  their  rights, 
courageous  to  speak  for  truth  and  righteousness 
despite  the  opposition  of  all  earthly  powers. 
In  the  eleventh  century,  the  age  of  the  Norman 
conquest,  there  rose  up  a  pope,  in  some  respects 
the  master  mind  of  his  age — a  man  who  would 
have  been  famous  in  any  age.  Hildebrand,  or  by 
his  ecclesiastical  title  Pope  Gregory  VII.,  con- 
trolled the  policy  of  Rome  for  thirty  years  before 
he  assumed  the  tiara.  It  is  supposed  that  William 
the  Conqueror  had  papal  permission  to  make  the 
conquest  of  England  through  Hildebrand's  influ- 
ence, and  that  the  reigning  pope  was  merely  his 


ii4 


THE  NORMAN  PERIOD 


spokesman.    Hiidebrand  deserves   to   be  called 
great,  because  he  read  his  age  so  clearly.    He  saw 
that  the  Church  could  never  become  an  universal 
Christian  empire,  a  theocracy  accomplishing  the 
will  of  God  on  earth,  unless  the  civil  power,  the 
princes,  the  kings  and  emperors  were  first  made 
subject  to  its  control.    Everywhere  he  looked  he 
saw  that  the  State  stood  in  the  way  of  the  Church. 
Because  the  Church  had  grown  rich  in  lands  and 
revenues,  it  was  a  constant  temptation  to  kings 
and  princes  to  use  the  Church  and  its  endow- 
ments in  order  to  secure  civil  ends.    It  seemed 
to  Hiidebrand  as  if  the  Church  were  desecrated 
and  robbed  of  its  divine  strength,  by  having  any 
connection  with  the  State.    As  he  reasoned  on 
the  subject,  the  spiritual  was  higher  and  more  im- 
portant than  the  secular  or  worldly,  the  ecclesi- 
astical interests  were  eternal  while  those  of  the 
State  were  temporal.    The  policy  outlined  in  his 
far-seeing  mind  was  a  stupendous  effort  for  one 
man  to  attempt.    He  saw  that  the  Church  must 
first  be  separated  from  the  State,  owning  no  con- 
nection with  or  allegiance  to  the  civil  power;  and 
then  that  the  States  of  Europe  must  be  made 
subject  to  the  direct  power  of  God  on  earth,  as 
represented   by  the  Bishop  of  Rome.    It  was 
another  mark  of  the  greatness  of  Hiidebrand  that 
he  believed  in  the  success  of  an  effort  to  accom- 
plish this  vast  revolution.    Hiidebrand  combined 


OF  THE  ENGLISH  CHURCH. 


the  capacity  of  the  most  astute  of  politicians,  with 
the  mood  of  a  divine  dreamer,  who  lives  not  for 
himself,  but  for  God.  In  his  words,  contained  in 
the  bull  by  which  he  excommunicated  the  German 
emperor,  we  have  revealed  to  us  the  extent  of  his 
ambitious  purpose  :  "  Come,  now,  I  pray  you,  O 
most  Holy  Father,  and  princes  (Peter  and  Paul), 
that  all  the  world  may  know  that  if  you  are  able 
to  bind  and  loose  in  heaven,  you  are  able  on  earth 
to  take  away  or  to  give  to  each  according  to  his 
merits,  empires,  kingdoms,  duchies,  marquisates, 
counties  and  the  possessions  of  all  men."  Hilde- 
brand  was  sincere  in  his  belief  that  this  power  had 
been  committed  to  him,  and  that  to  resist  his  will 
was  to  defy  the  authority  of  God.  He  stands  at 
the  beginning  of  a  new  era  in  Europe,  the  age  of 
the  papal  supremacy,  a  dominion  which  endured 
for  300  years.  With  this  age  coincides  the  Nor- 
man period  in  the  history  of  the  Church  of  Eng- 
land. It  shall  be  in  England  that  we  follow  the 
popes,  until  they  achieve  their  purpose. 

The  first  step  which  was  taken  toward  sepa- 
rating the  Church  from  the  State  was  the  enforce- 
ment of  clerical  celibacy — an  ideal  of  the  Middle 
Ages  which  had  not  yet  been  realized.  So  long 
as  the  clergy  were  married  they  would  be  inter- 
ested in  the  fortunes  of  the  State  and  dependent 
upon  the  well-being  of  the  State  for  the  advancement 
of  themselves  and  their  children  ;  but  a  celibate  cler- 


u6 


THE  NORMAN  PERIOD 


gy,  having  no  interest  in  the  State,  would  become 
devoted  exclusively  to  the  Church.  Up  to  this  time 
the  clergy  in  England  had  for  the  most  part  been 
married.  Hildebrand's  decree  of  celibacy  was  car- 
ried out  against  their  will  ;  and  though  there  must 
have  been  more  exceptions  to  its  enforcement  in 
England  than  elsewhere,  it  became  the  law  of  the 
English  Church.  The  Norman  conqueror  in  this 
respect  sympathized  with  the  papal  policy,  as  did 
also  his  Norman  followers.  They  brought  with 
them  to  England  the  idea  prevailing  upon  the 
Continent,  that  duty  to  the  Church  demanded 
this  sacrifice  of  all  who  ministered  at  its  altars. 

There  was  also  another  law  which  Hildebrand 
promulgated,  and  which  he  was  not  so  successful 
in  enforcing,  at  least  in  England — a  law  the  pro- 
mulgation of  which  gave  rise  to  a  long  and  violent 
controversy,  known  as  the  Investiture  Contro- 
versy. We  shall  better  understand  its  nature  by 
following  the  course  of  events  in  England. 

Although  William  the  Conqueror  had  procured 
the  approval  of  the  pope  for  the  conquest  of  Eng- 
land, yet  after  he  was  established  there  he  did  not 
propose  that  the  pope  should  interfere  with  his 
authority.  The  pope  also  was  prudent,  and  re- 
frained from  interfering  with  William,  while  he 
violated  the  law,  for  whose  infraction  he  dared 
to  excommunicate  the  Emperor  of  Germany. 
The  theory  on  which  William  governed  England 


OF  THE  ENGLISH  CHURCH.  1 17 


is  known  as  Feudalism.  It  assumed  that  all  the 
lands  of  the  country  belonged  to  the  king.  The 
king  had  given  these  lands  to  his  subjects  on  cer- 
tain conditions,  among  the  foremost  of  which  was 
the  understanding  that  the  tenant  or  vassal  should 
aid  the  king  in  his  wars,  by  furnishing  a  certain 
contingent  of  soldiers  equipped  for  his  army. 
The  great  question  of  the  hour  was  whether  the 
Church  lands  should  also  be  held  on  the  same  ten- 
ure. Were  the  bishops  and  the  heads  of  great 
monasteries,  the  king's  men,  and  were  they  also 
bound  in  return  for  lands  which  they  held,  to  ren- 
der the  vassal's  service  and  to  aid  the  monarch 
with  their  revenues?  If  the  spiritual  nobility, 
like  the  secular  lords,  were  vassals  to  the  king, 
then  it  followed  that  lands  and  other  property 
which  had  been  given  to  the  Church  still  belonged 
primarily  to  the  king.  It  was  the  king's  pleasure 
to  allot  these  lands  to  the  Church  on  fixed  condi- 
tions, and  these  conditions  implied  that  the  arch- 
bishop or  bishop  should  do  homage  to  the  king 
in  order  to  be  invested  with  the  dignities  and  rev- 
enues of  their  sees.  It  must  be  remembered  that 
at  this  time  in  England  the  Church  held  nearly 
one-third  of  all  the  lands  of  the  kingdom.  The 
king  would  have  felt  impoverished  and  unable  to 
carry  on  his  constant  wars,  or  to  reward  his  sub- 
jects who  had  done  him  service,  had  one-third  of 
his  territory  been  alienated   from   his  control. 


1 1  s 


THE  NORMAN  PERIOD 


William  the  Conqueror  had  no  doubt  upon  the 
,  question.  He  claimed  the  Church's  lands  as  be- 
longing to  the  crown.  He  regarded  the  bishops 
as  great  feudatories  quite  as  truly  as  the  secular 
lords.  He  proceeded  to  put  his  friends  and  ser- 
vants in  possession  of  the  lands  of  the  Church 
without  much  regard  to  their  spiritual  fitness  for 
the  position.  The  bishops  became  courtiers, 
holding  by  feudal  tenure,  and  the  only  distinction 
between  them  and  the  secular  lords  was  the  at- 
taching of  what  were  called  spiritual  duties  to  the 
conditions  on  which  they  were  entitled  to  their 
office  and  revenues.  But  the  qualification  for 
spiritual  duties  came  last.  In  the  impressive  cer- 
emonial by  which,  as  Mr.  Freeman  has  shown,  the 
bishops  qualified  for  their  position,  first  came  the 
act  of  homage  to  the  king,  in  which  the  bishop 
designate,  kneeling  before  the  king  and  placing 
his  hands  in  the  king's  hands,  swore  to  be  an 
obedient  vassal  to  his  overlord.  The  act  of  hom- 
age was  followed  by  the  enthronement  or  investi. 
ture,  when  the  king  presented  him  with  the  staff 
and  ring  as  the  symbols  of  his  office.  After  these 
ceremonies  he  was  spiritually  qualified  in  the  act 
of  consecration  by  bishops  who  represented  the 
Church's  part  in  the  transaction.  It  shows  how 
great  the  change  is  which  has  since  taken  place, 
that  in  the  present  method  of  making  a  bishop 
in  the  English  Church,  consecration  by  the  bish- 


OF  THE  ENGLISH  CHURCH. 


110 


ops  comes  first,  then  follows  the  enthronement  or 
investiture  with  the  dignities  and  revenues  of  the 
see,  and  lastly  comes  the  act  of  homage  to  the 
throne. 

It  was  Hildebrand  or  Pope  Gregory  VII.  who 
attempted  to  overcome  this  doctrine  that  the 
high  dignitaries  of  the  Church  were  the  king's 
men.  He  regarded  the  property  of  the  Church 
as  belonging  solely  to  God,  and  to  the  pope  as  the 
head  of  His  Church  in  the  world.  The  bishops 
were  primarily  the  pope's  men  and  not  the  king's 
men ;  they  must  be  invested  with  the  rights  of 
their  office  by  religious  authority  and  not  by  the 
civil  power.  For  the  king  to  claim  the  Church's 
lands  was  robbery  and  sacrilege.  For  the  bishop 
to  allow  himself  to  be  invested  with  ring  and  staff 
by  the  secular  power  was  to  be  guilty  of  simony, 
as  when  Simon  Magus,  in  the  apostles'  time, 
sought  to  purchase  the  gifts  of  God  with  money. 

Thus  arose  the  great  controversy  about  inves- 
titure, which  lasted  for  more  than  a  generation, 
and  which  finally  ended  in  a  compromise ;  for 
there  was  right  on  both  sides  of  the  question,  and 
the  papacy  was  unable  to  carry  out  Hildebrand's 
decree  without  some  qualification  of  its  sweeping 
purpose.  Hildebrand  had  excommunicated  and 
humiliated  at  Canossa  the  Emperor  of  Germany 
for  daring  to  invest  his  bishops  with  the  symbols 
of  their  office.    But  William  the  Conqueror  was 


t2Q 


THE  NORMAN  PERIOD 


at  a  distance,  strongly  entrenched  in  his  posses- 
sion, and  Hildebrand  thought  it  imprudent  to  in- 
terfere. It  would  be  unwise,  even  for  him,  to 
have  more  than  one  quarrel  at  a  time  with  the 
monarchs  of  Europe.  So  William  was  left  to  his 
own  devices.  He  filled  up  the  sees  of  England  at 
his  pleasure,  offering  them  as  rewards  to  his  faith- 
ful servants,  who  accepted  them  as  a  feudal  tenure 
with  their  spiritual  duties  attached  as  a  sort  of 
secondary  consideration. 

William  the  Conqueror  died  in  1087.  He  was 
succeeded  by  his  son,  William  II.,  or  William 
Riifus,  as  he  is  generally  called,  who  not  only  fol- 
lowed his  father's  policy  in  the  matter  of  investi- 
ture, but  went  beyond  his  father  in  his  claims  of 
authority  over  the  Church.  The  first  William 
had  lived  on  terms  of  amity  with  his  archbishop 
Lanfranc,  and  both  had  labored  together  in  the  in- 
terest of  consolidating  the  English  nation.  Will- 
iam the  Conqueror,  like  David  among  the  kings 
of  Israel,  had  known  how  to  adjust  himself  with 
the  prophetic  office  as  represented  in  the  great  see 
at  Canterbury.  Lanfranc,  although  an  Italian, 
was  a  true  yoke-fellow  to  his  king,  laboring  with 
him  for  the  strengthening  of  the  kingly  authority, 
and  not  neglectful  of  the  well-being  of  the  Church. 
We  can  hardly  speak  of  England  yet  as  a  nation, 
but  William  and  Lanfranc  were  unconsciously  im- 
pelled by  that  subtle  leaven  of  influence  which 


OF  THE  ENGLISH  CHURCH. 


\2\ 


had  been  an  active  force  in  earlier  history,  and 
which  was  destined  to  work  until  England  should 
become  foremost  among  the  nations  of  the  earth. 
We  are  chiefly  impressed,  as  we  study  this  period 
of  English  history,  with  the  power  and  triumphs 
of  the  papacy,  as  it  moved  steadily  on  to  the  ful- 
filment of  its  purpose.  And  yet  the  real  interest 
lies,  not  in  this  temporary  sway  of  a  theocratic 
emperor  of  Christendom,  but  in  the  silent  and  im- 
perceptible steps  by  which  the  conquered  English 
were  assimilated  to  their  Norman  conquerors,  un- 
til they  became  one  people ;  the  most  absorbing 
study  is  to  watch  the  process  by  which  the  Eng- 
lish spirit  vindicates  itself  against  all  foreign  influ- 
ences. And  at  last  the  English  nation  has  come 
to  the  birth,  richer  and  fuller  for  the  invasions  and 
humiliations  which  it  has  undergone. 

But  we  must  pause  yet  for  a  few  moments 
longer  upon  this  great  duel  between  the  English 
throne  and  the  Roman  pope  before  the  utterance 
of  the  national  consciousness  is  heard.* 

William  Rufus  was  inferior  to  his  father  not 
only  as  a  king  but  as  a  man.  He  has  been  called 
the  worst,  the  most  thoroughly  wicked  king  who 

*  There  are  several  lives  of  Anselm,  in  which  the  story  of 
his  struggle  with  the  crown  is  related ;  among  others  those 
of  Dean  Church,  Rule,  Hasse  and  Remusat.  The  best  ac- 
count, to  which  I  am  chiefly  indebted,  is  given  in  Freeman's 
History  of  William  Rufus,  Vol.  I. 


]  22 


THE  NORMAN  PERIOD 


ever  wore  the  English  crown.  It  is  sometimes 
questioned  whether  there  were  any  skepticisms  in 
these  ages  of  faith.  But  William  Rufus  was  not 
only  skeptical  about  religion,  he  was  also  a  blas- 
phemer and  a  hater  of  God,  determined,  as  he  ex- 
pressed it,  to  have  his  vengeance  upon  God  for 
all  the  evil  that  he  suffered  at  His  hands.  He  was 
not  only  this,  but  he  was  a  man  of  the  foulest  life, 
introducing  nameless  vices  into  England  which 
had  been  before  unknown,  except  in  the  east  and 
in  the  degraded  times  of  the  Roman  Empire.  It 
was  a  strange  coincidence  that  such  a  man  should 
be  associated  with  an  Archbishop  of  Canterbury 
like  Anselm,  the  greatest  saint  of  his  age,  the  one 
man  of  all  others  who  penetrated  most  deeply 
in  that  time  into  the  higher  mysteries  of  the 
Christian  faith. 

Anselm,  too,  was  a  foreigner,  a  native  of  Italy 
who,  wandering  away  from  his  native  village  in 
Piedmont,  had  turned  up  in  Normandy  at  the 
Monastery  of  Bee.  When  Lanfranc,  its  former 
abbot,  was  promoted  to  the  See  of  Canterbury, 
Anselm  had  succeeded  him  as  the  head  of  the 
monastery.  He  had  been  known  and  liked  by 
William  the  Conqueror,  who  had  the  gift,  it  is 
said,  of  discerning  and  loving  men  who  were  good 
at  heart.  In  this  way  William  Rufus  had  come  to 
be  acquainted  with  Anselm.  If  there  was  one  re- 
deeming trait  in  the  character  of  William  Rufus 


OF  THE  ENGLISH  CHURCH. 


123 


it  was  his  reverence  for  the  memory  of  his  father. 
This  fondness  of  his  father  for  Anselm  had  some- 
thing to  do  with  his  becoming  the  Primate  of  all 
England. 

Anselm  is  generally  known  in  Church  history  as 
the  greatest  theologian  of  the  time,  as  a  master  in 
dialectics,  and  the  founder  of  what  is  called  the 
Scholastic  philosophy.  He  is  not  generally  asso- 
ciated with  England  in  our  minds,  when  we  think 
of  him  in  his  theological  and  philosophical  capacity. 
Perhaps  England  has  no  right  to  claim  him  as  her 
own  in  this  respect.  For  great  as  has  been  the 
history  of  the  English  Church,  it  has  not  been  her 
mission  to  produce  theologians  of  the  highest  or- 
der. Each  nation  has  its  special  calling  in  the 
vineyard  of  God.  It  has  been  the  work  of  Ger- 
many to  produce  great  theologians  rather  than  to 
create  an  ecclesiastical  organization.  The  call  of 
England  has  lain  in  the  direction  of  building  up 
a  great  national  Church, — the  reflex  of  the  spirit- 
ual life  of  its  people.  As  England  gave  birth  to 
no  great  monastic  orders,  so  her  greatest  theolo- 
gian was  also  an  importation  from  abroad,  deriving 
his  motive  and  his  culture  from  a  foreign  source. 
But  his  connection  with  the  English  Church  is 
nevertheless  a  close  one,  and  the  story  of  his  rela- 
tion to  the  line  of  our  history  is  interesting  in  the 
highest  degree. 


124 


THE  NORMAN  PERIOD 


William  Rufus  not  only  accepted  his  father's 
doctrine,  that  the  lands  of  the  Church  belonged 
primarily  to  the  crown,  but  he  made  a  further  ap- 
plication of  the  principle  which  shocked  the  moral 
sense  of  the  people.  Claiming  for  his  own  the 
lands  and  revenues  of  the  sees  and  monasteries, 
he  declared  that  it  rested  with  his  mere  pleasure 
when  they  should  be  filled  after  the  death  of  their 
occupants,  or  whether  they  should  be  filled  at  all. 
In  case  they  were  filled,  it  should  be  by  those  who 
were  willing  by  rich  presents  and  easy  terms  to 
make  it  an  object  for  him  to  do  so.  After  the 
death  of  Archbishop  Lanfranc  he  allowed  the  See 
of  Canterbury  to  remain  vacant  for  five  years,  as- 
serting his  purpose  to  be  his  own  archbishop. 
During  these  years  he  rented  the  lands  of  Canter- 
bury to  his  own  creatures,  on  his  own  terms,  and 
appropriated  to  his  own  use  the  revenues.  It 
seems  as  if  he  would  have  maintained  this  attitude 
throughout  his  reign,  had  he  not  been  taken  with 
a  grievous  sickness,  which  threatened  his  life  and 
brought  him  to  repentance.  Under  these  circum- 
stances he  appointed  Anselm,  who  happened  to  be 
in  England  at  the  time,  as  Archbishop  of  Canter- 
bury, in  the  year  1093. 

When  Anselm  became  primate  of  all  England, 
he  did  not  share  in  the  views  which  Hildebrand 
was  proclaiming,  that  the  Church  should  be  sepa- 
rated from  the  State,  and  the  State  be  subordi- 


OF  THE  ENGLISH  CHURCH. 


125 


nated  to  ecclesiastical  rule.  He  stipulated  with 
the  king  that  he  would  take  the  office,  which  he 
did  not  seek  and  did  not  want,  on  condition  that 
the  king  would  restore  to  the  Church  the  posses- 
sions which  had  belonged  to  it  in  the  days  of  his 
predecessor,  Lanfranc.  To  this  condition  the 
king  in  his  softened  mood  consented.  Other 
conditions  also  Anselm  had  proposed,  to  which  it 
is  not  so  clear  that  the  king  assented — that  the 
king  would  take  him  for  his  spiritual  adviser,  and 
also  that  he  would  recognize  Pope  Urban,  who 
was  then  struggling  with  a  rival  claimant  for  the 
papal  throne.  So  Anselm  was  made  archbishop 
in  the  usual  way,  doing  homage  to  the  king  and 
swearing  obedience,  receiving  the  ring  and  staff  as 
symbols  of  his  investiture  with  the  possessions  of 
his  see,  and  then,  lastly,  consecrated  by  the  bish- 
ops in  order  to  his  qualification  for  his  spiritual 
functions., 

Anselm  had  foreseen  the  difficulties  which  he 
would  encounter  in  the  execution  of  his  office  un- 
der such  a  king  as  William  Rufus.  He  made  use 
of  an  illustration  which  clearly  shows  how  the  two 
offices  of  king  and  primate  then  stood  related  to 
each  other  in  the  popular  mind.  "  If,"  he  re- 
marked, "  the  field  of  the  Church  of  England  is 
to  be  cultivated,  two  of  the  strongest  oxen  must 
draw  the  plough, — the  king  and  the  archbishop, 
the  former  by  his  worldly  authority  and  rule,  the 


126 


THE  NORMAN  PERIOD 


latter  by  spiritual  instruction  and  guidance."  He 
compared  himself  to  an  old  and  feeble  sheep 
yoked  to  an  ox  in  all  the  wildness  of  youth,  and 
there  would  be  danger  that  the  ox  would  drag  the 
sheep  through  hedges  of  thorns  and  brambles,  un- 
til the  lambs  of  the  flock  had  perished.  The  sig- 
nificance of  the  illustration  lies  in  this,— that  An- 
selm  allowed  to  the  king  an  equal  share  with  him- 
self in  the  cultivation  of  the  field  of  the  Church  of 
England.  All  this  was  soon  to  be  changed,  and 
Anselm  was  to  become  the  agent  of  the  change. 
I  dwell  upon  the  story  because  in  it  may  be  seen 
the  transition  of  the  popular  sentiment  by  which 
the  pope  became  supreme  in  England. 

The  repentance  of  William  Rufus  was  not  of 
long  duration.  When  he  recovered  from  his  ill- 
ness he  fell  back  again  to  his  evil  ways.  He  re- 
fused to  listen  to  Anselm,  who  remonstrated  with 
him  in  his  capacity  as  spiritual  adviser;  he  robbed 
theChurchinorderto  find  means  to  carry  on  his  sin- 
ful pleasures ;  he  refused  to  fill  the  monasteries  with 
abbots  who  would  promote  discipline ;  he  neglected 
to  appoint  bishops  and  claimed  the  revenues  of 
the  vacant  sees.  When  Anselm  urged  him  to 
recognize  Urban  as  pope  he  declined,  for  he 
wanted  no  interference  from  that  source  with  his 
policy.  At  last,  when  Anselm  asked  permission 
to  go  to  Rome  to  get  the  pallium,  the  token  of 
his  recognition  by  the  Bishop  of  Rome,  William 


OF  THE  ENGLISH  CHURCH. 


i-7 


refused  his  consent.  It  shows  the  character  of  the 
king,  that,  perceiving  how  Anselm  had  right  on 
his  side  in  this  request,  he  finally  sent  to  Rome 
secretly,  recognized  Urban  and  had  the  pallium 
brought  to  England  by  a  papal  messenger.  At 
first  it  was  proposed  that  Anselm  should  receive 
it  at  the  hands  of  the  king.  When  he  declined 
to  do  this  the  pallium  was  laid  on  the  altar  of  the 
great  church  at  Canterbury,  from  whence  Anselm 
took  it  with  his  own  hands. 

There  was  now  a  state  of  open  rupture  between 
the  archbishop  and  the  king.  The  king  showed 
his  displeasure  in  ways  that  annoyed  his  yoke- 
fellow and  hindered  his  performance  of  his  spirit- 
ual duty.  He  sent  out  of  the  country  the  friends 
and  sympathizers  of  Anselm.  He  steadily  refused 
to  allow  any  synod  to  be  held  for  the  reformation 
of  manners  and  discipline.  Under  these  circum- 
stances it  is  not  strange  that  the  soul  of  Anselm 
went  through  an  inward  transition  which  was 
typical  of  an  impending  revolution.  He  became 
hopeless  of  the  situation  and  looked  away  from 
the  kingdom  for  relief.  He  now  began  to  muse 
upon  the  pope  and  his  relation  to  the  universal 
Church.  "Rome  seen  at  a  distance  seemed  pure 
and  holy;  its  pontiff  seemed  the  one  embodiment 
of  right  and  law,  the  one  shadow  of  God  left  upon 
the  earth  in  a  world  of  force  and  falsehood  and 
wrong."    It  was  a  circumstance  of  deep  signifi- 


128 


THE  NORMAN  PERIOD 


cance  for  the  fortunes  of  the  English  Church  when 
Anselm  fell  to  thinking  about  the  pope.  From 
that  time  the  spirit  of  the  man  began  to  change. 
On  three  occasions  he  asked  permission  of  the 
king  to  go  to  Rome,  and  each  time  the  king,  re- 
fusing his  consent,  grew  more  incensed  against 
him.  Then  Anselm  announced  his  intention  to 
go  without  consent  even  though,  as  the  king 
threatened,  the  archbishopric  should  be  taken 
from  him.  On  these  terms  the  archbishop  parted 
from  the  king. 

William  Rufus  died  while  Anselm  was  absent  an 
exile  from  his  see.  When  Anselm  returned  he 
came  back  an  altered  man.  He  had  seen  some- 
thing of  the  power  of  the  Church  abroad  ;  he  had 
embraced  the  theory  of  Hildebrand;  he  had  par- 
ticipated in  two  councils  at  which  secular  investi- 
ture had  been  condemned,  and  those  who  dared 
perform  it  threatened  with  excommunication. 
When  King  Henry  I.,  who  succeeded  William 
Rufus,  demanded  of  Anselm  the  customary  oath 
of  allegiance  in  order  that  he  might  receive  anew 
the  archbishopric  at  his  hands,  Anselm  refused  to 
promise  obedience  and  was  again  in  open  rupture 
with  the  royal  authority.  The  mild  and  saintly 
man  who  had  submitted  so  patiently  to  the  insults 
of  William  Rufus  now  stood  ready  to  excommuni- 
cate his  successor  for  encroaching  upon  his  spirit- 
ual authority.    Under  the  moral  influence  of  An- 


OF  THE  ENGLISH  CHURCH. 


I29 


selm  the  sentiment  grew  in  the  kingdom  that  the 
king  should  have  no  part  in  cultivating  the  field 
of  the  Church.  Spiritual  things  were  for  spiritual 
men.  The  Church,  since  it  controlled  spiritual 
and  eternal  destinies,  must  be  independent  of  the 
State  in  order  to  realize  its  mission.  It  shows  how 
the  Church  had  gained  on  the  State,  that  Anselm 
was  able  to  hold  the  king  in  check  by  fear  of  ec- 
clesiastical penalties.  Had  the  Pope  Paschal, 
come  to  the  aid  of  the  archbishop,  the  humilia- 
tion of  the  king  might  have  been  accomplished. 
But  Paschal's  situation,  like  that  of  Hildebrand, 
had  its  difficulties.  Even  the  popes,  claiming  the 
supreme  government  of  the  world,  were  hampered 
by  the  limitations  of  worldly  policy.  The  Em- 
peror of  Germany,  Henry  IV.,  was  still  giving  the 
pope  so  much  trouble  that  he  was  obliged  to  com- 
promise the  case  between  Henry  of  England,  and 
his  archbishop.  Anselm  did  not  carry  his  point. 
According  to  the  terms  of  the  compromise  the  king 
retained  the  really  important  part  of  investiture — 
the  oaths  of  fealty  and  homage,  while  resigning 
the  idle  symbol  of  the  gift  of  ring  and  crozier. 
But  in  the  light  of  those  intangible  sentiments 
which  govern  the  opinion  of  mankind,  the  Church 
had  gained  and  the  State  had  lost.  It  was  a  vic- 
tory in  itself,  as  the  tides  were  then  running,  that 
an  archbishop  of  Canterbury  had  defied  the  king 
of  England  and  still  retained  possession  of  his  see. 


ISO 


THE  NORMAN  PERIOD 


The  Church  had  vindicated  its  spiritual  indepen- 
dence, overcoming  the  danger  which  threatened 
it,  of  becoming  a  mere  appanage  of  the  crown. 
The  gain  was  a  real  one  for  the  cause  of  true  re- 
ligion, even  though  it  inevitably  promoted  the 
civil  supremacy  of  the  Bishop  of  Rome. 

The  conflict  of  Anselm  with  the  kings  of  Eng- 
land represents  one  stage  in  the  process  by  which 
the  popes  achieved  supremacy  over  the  States  of 
Europe.  The  principle  at  issue  in  this  conflict 
had  been  the  separation  of  the  Church  from  the 
State  in  order  to  the  freedom  and  independence 
of  the  Church.  But  hardly  had  this  result  been 
secured  when  the  scene  changes  and  the  papacy 
appears  as  claiming  that  authority  over  the  State 
which  the  State  had  been  condemned  for  seeking 
io  exercise  over  the  Church.  In  following  the 
steps  of  the  process  by  which  the  popes  attained 
their  end  in  England,  we  are  led  to  consider  the 
question  of  ecclesiastical  courts,  which  created  the 
necessity  of  an  appeal  to  the  papacy  as  having  su- 
preme appellate  jurisdiction. 

In  the  happier  adjustment  of  the  relations  of 
Church  and  State  during  the  Anglo-Saxon  period, 
there  had  been  but  one  mode  of  legal  procedure 
for  clerics  and  for  laymen.  All  cases  were  brought 
before  a  mixed  tribunal  composed  of  the  highest 
ecclesiastical  and  lay  dignitaries  of  the  kingdom, 


OF  THE  ENGLISH  CHURCH.  131 

to  whose  decision  the  clergy  yielded  as  final  no  less 
than  the  laity.  It  was  not  thought  improper  that 
a  layman  should  take  part  in  adjudging  questions 
which  concerned  the  spiritual  interests  of  the 
kingdom. 

When  William  the  Conqueror  came  to  England, 
he  brought  with  him  another  practice,  which  pre- 
vailed on  the  continent.  He  set  up  ecclesiastical 
courts  presided  over  by  bishops,  with  exclusive 
jurisdiction  in  the  case  of  ecclesiastical  offenders 
who  were  thus  emancipated  from  secular  tribun- 
als. These  spiritual  or  ecclesiastical  courts  have 
a  curious  history.  They  seem  to  have  originated 
with  the  advice  of  St.  Paul  to  the  Corinthians : — 

"  Dare  any  of  you,  having  a  matter  against  his  neighbor, 
to  go  to  law  before  the  unrighteous  and  not  before  the 
saints  ?  Know  ye  not  that  the  saints  shall  judge  the  world, 
and  if  the  world  shall  be  judged  by  you,  are  ye  unworthy  to 
judge  the  smallest  matters  ?  Know  ye  not  that  we  shall 
judge  angels,  how  much  more  things  that  pertain  to  this  life? 
If  then  ye  have  to  judge  things  pertaining  to  this  life,  do 
ye  set  them  to  judge  who  are  of  no  account  in  the  church? 
Is  it  so  that  there  cannot  be  found  among  you  one  just  man 
who  shall  be  able  to  decide  between  his  brethren,  but  brother 
goes  to  law  with  brother,  and  that  before  unbelievers  ?  " 

It  was  these  words  which  became  the  warrant 
for  the  establishment  of  spiritual  or  ecclesiastical 
courts,  in  contrast  with  the  civil  or  the  king's 
courts.  One  hardly  need  stop  to  comment  on  the 
inapplicability  of  the  apostle's  words.    They  were 


1 32 


THE  NORMAN  PERIOD 


spoken  when  the  great  world  was  heathen,  when 
the  Church  formed  a  small  circle  of  believers 
hemmed  in  by  hostile  sentiment.  But  after  the 
world  had  become  Christian,  to  go  to  law  before 
lay  judges,  was  not  to  go  before  unbelievers  or 
unspiritual  men.  And  further,  St.  Paul  spoke  to 
the  laity,  the  people  of  Corinth ;  but  the  Church 
applied  his  principle  only  to  the  clergy.  It  was 
the  clergy  alone  in  the  Middle  Ages,  who  were 
regarded  as  constituting  the  saints,  to  whom  the 
title  of  religious  or  spiritual  belonged.  The  laity 
still  belonged  to  the  world,  and  were  spoken  of  as 
camales,  carnal  men,  in  contrast  with  the  clergy, 
who  were  spirituales. 

We  have  in  these  so-called  spiritual  courts,  the 
germ  of  the  papacy  as  a  supreme  court  of  appeals. 
For  if  each  bishop  was  to  hold  his  courts,  and 
above  the  bishops'  courts  were  the  courts  of  the 
metropolitan  or  archbishop,  it  was  necessary  that 
the  final  appeal  should  be  taken  either  to  the  king 
or  to  the  Bishop  of  Rome.  The  kings,  as  we 
know,  at  a  later  time  resisted  the  appeal  to 
Rome.  But  the  principle  had  been  established 
by  the  forged  decretals  that  the  final  appeal 
in  all  grave  cases  should  go  to  Rome ;  and 
the  sentiment  of  the  clergy  for  the  most  part 
favored  the  practice  of  going  to  the  spiritual  head 
of  the  Church,  as  the  surest  means  of  redress  in 
their  troubles.    Justice  is  not  always  an  easy  thing 


OF  THE  ENGLISH  CHURCH. 


133 


to  secure  in  this  world.  It  is  not  strange  that  the 
clergy,  appreciating  keenly  the  injustice  of  na- 
tional tribunals,  should  have  cherished  the  ideal 
of  a  justice  which  might  be  had  beyond  the  sea, 
in  the  distant  and  larger  world  of  the  Bishop  of 
Rome.  It  needed  only  that  Rome  should  be 
given  a  fair  opportunity  to  show  the  world  its 
conception  of  justice,  in  order  that  so  delusive  a 
sentiment  should  forever  disappear. 

When  Henry  II.  came  to  the  throne  in  1 154,  he 
was  confronted  with  the  difficulties  springing  from 
these  ecclesiastical  courts.  The  times  in  which  he 
reigned  were  full  of  lawlessness,  confusion,  and 
misery  ;  a  strong  king  was  needed,  who  could  es- 
tablish a  powerful  government  and  good  order. 
Such  a  man  was  Henry  II.,  possessing  sagacity 
and  courage  and  a  legal  judicial  mind.  The  con- 
solidation of  the  people  into  one  nation,  by  which 
the  distinction  between  Norman  and  English  dis- 
appeared, is  generally  placed  to  his  Credit.  In  his 
reign  an  Englishman  ascended  the  papal  throne, 
Nicholas  Breakspar,  under  the  name  of  Adrian 
IV., — the  only  Englishman  who  ever  attained  the 
honor.  The  connection  between  England  and 
Rome  became  in  consequence  closer  than  it  had 
been  before.  It  is  a  circumstance  which  deserves 
to  be  recalled,  that  Pope  Adrian  made  a  grant  of 
the  schismatical  country  of  Ireland  to  the  English 
king— a  circumstance  which  the  generous  hearts 


134 


THE  NORMAN  PERIOD 


of  our  Irish  brethren  have  never  treasured  up 
against  the  holy  father.  They  are  prepared  rather 
to  resent  its  acceptance  by  the  king  than  its  gift 
by  the  pope. 

It  was  one  of  the  projects  of  Henry  II.  to  curb 
the  power  of  the  Church,  which  had  been  growing 
stronger  in  the  kingdom  since  the  days  of  An- 
selm,  and  which  now  threatened  the  rightful  pre- 
rogatives of  the  king  and  the  well-being  of  the 
State.  With  his  inherent  love  of  justice,  the  king 
was  offended  with  the  ecclesiastical  courts  in 
which  the  clergy  took  refuge,  escaping  the  penal- 
ties which  they  would  have  suffered  in  the  secular 
courts.  In  his  attempts  to  bring  the  clergy  to 
justice,  he  was  opposed  and  thwarted  by  Thomas 
a  Becket,  who  had  formerly  been  his  chancellor 
and  his  intimate  friend,  but  who  as  Archbishop  of 
Canterbury  became  his  mortal  foe.  A  bad  case  of 
clerical  justice  was  the  first  occasion  of  the  Quar- 
rel. A  clerk  by  the  name  of  Philip  Brois  had 
committed  a  murder  and  received  no  punishment. 
The  civil  courts  had  claimed  to  try  the  case  and 
found  him  guilty  ;  but  Becket  had  insisted  that 
he  should  be  withdrawn  from  the  secular  jurisdic- 
tion, and  had  sentenced  him  to  two  years'  de- 
prival  of  his  benefice.  It  was  this  incident  which 
is  said  to  have  determined  the  king  to  restore  the 
ancient  customs  of  the  country,  when  the  clergy 
were  amenable  to  the  civil  jurisdiction.    At  a  great 


OF  THE  ENGLISH  CHURCH. 


135 


council  held  at  Clarendon  in  1 164,  what  are  known 
as  the  Clarendon  Constitutions  were  enacted, 
which  embodied  the  king's  views, — what  may  be 
called  the  national  view  of  the  king's  authority. 
According  to  the  Clarendon  Constitutions  crimi- 
nal cases  among  the  clergy  were  to  be  determined 
in  the  king's  court.  Other  laws  were  also  en- 
acted, such  as  that  bishops  should  not  leave  the 
country  without  the  king's  consent,  nor  should 
they  be  allowed  to  excommunicate  the  king's 
men ;  and  newly  elected  bishops  were  to  swear 
fealty  to  the  king. 

These  statutes  Becket  at  first  refused  to  sign  ; 
afterwards  he  signed  them  and  then  retracted  his 
signature,  appealing  to  the  pope  to  absolve  him 
for  his  sin  in  yielding.  He  now  carried  his 
case  to  Rome  as  Anselm  had  done  before  him ; 
he  took  his  stand  upon  the  forged  decretals  in  op- 
position to  the  law  of  the  kingdom ;  he  declared 
that  he  placed  himself  and  the  Church  under  the 
guardianship  of  the  pope  and  of  God.  Leaving 
the  kingdom,  as  Anselm  had  done,  he  remained 
abroad,  resisting  the  king  and  vainly  expecting 
aid  from  a  pope  who  was  too  busy  or  too  prudent 
to  give  him  the  support  for  which  he  asked. 

It  is  unnecessary  to  repeat  the  familiar  story  of 
Thomas  a  Becket.  He  long  continued  to  defy 
the  king,  and  his  actions  were  so  irritating  and 
exasperating  as  to  drive  the  king  into  a  frenzy 


i36 


THE  NORMAN  PERIOD 


which  he  could  not  control.    Whether  the  king 
was  responsible  for  his  murder  is  doubtful.  As 
the  story  goes,  certain  of  the  king's  attendants, 
supposing,  from  his  language,  that  he  would  be 
pleased  to  be  rid  of  Becket  altogether,  assassin- 
ated the  archbishop  near  the  altar  of  Canterbury 
cathedral,  on  the  eventful  day,  December  29,  11 70. 
It  depends  somewhat  on  our  sympathies,  whether 
they  are  with  Church  or  State,  as  to  the  estimate 
which  we  shall  place  on  the  fate  of  Thomas  a 
Becket.    By  some,  notably  Mr.  Froude,  his  death 
has  been  treated  as  a  righteous  punishment  for 
his  treachery  to  the  highest  interests  of  the  nation  ; 
by  others  he  has  been  regarded  as  a  martyr  dying 
in  a  holy  cause.    The  distinguished  historian,  Mr. 
Freeman,  who  is  entitled  to  speak  with  authority, 
thinks  that  the  principle  for  which  Becket  died 
was  not  the  authority  of  the  pope  over  the  Church, 
but  some  minor  point  growing  out  of  his  belief 
that  the  prerogatives  of  the  See  of  Canterbury  had 
been  invaded,  so  that  in  reality  he  died  in  the  in- 
terests of  a  national  cause.    It  is  certain  that  he 
carried  with  him  the  sympathy  of  the  people  in 
his  opposition  to  the  crown.    It  is  possible  that 
the  confused  and  complicated  situation  may  yet 
be  so  read  as  to  reveal  Becket  in  the  light  of  a 
friend  of  the  people,  with  the  cause  of  the  people 
as  the  issue  for  which  he  staked  his  life.    In  those 
days  the  people  as  a  force  in  civil  society  as  yet 


OF  THE  ENGLISH  CHURCH. 


*37 


hardly  existed.  It  may  be  that  they  were  not 
wrong  in  rallying  round  the  Archbishop  of  Canter- 
bury as  their  hope  against  oppression — the  only 
man  in  the  kingdom  who  could  defy  the  king. 

But  however  this  may  be,  the  death  of  Becket 
did  more  for  the  cause  of  the  Church  against  the 
State  than  his  life  would  have  done.  He  became 
the  typical  martyr  in  the  popular  estimation  not 
only  of  England,  but  of  Europe.  In  Becket  Eng- 
land gave  to  western  Christendom  the  most  in- 
fluential saint  of  the  middle  ages;  no  shrine  in 
Europe  was  so  rich  or  so  attractive  to  the  pilgrim 
as  the  shrine  of  Becket  in  the  Canterbury  cathe- 
dral ;  and  so  it  remained  until  the  age  of  the  Ref- 
ormation. 

The  murder  of  Becket  was  followed  by  the 
humiliation  of  the  king.  He  had  already  suffered 
one  humiliation  while  the  archbishop  was  still  liv- 
ing, when,  kneeling  before  him,  he  had  held  his 
stirrup  as  he  mounted  his  horse, — a  token  that 
the  civil  power  recognized  its  inferiority  to  the 
ecclesiastical.  When  Becket  was  murdered  the 
outcry  in  England  and  throughout  Europe  made 
Henry  aware  that  he  had  lost  his  cause.  Over- 
come by  this  sentiment  he  undertook  a  pilgrimage 
to  Becket's  tomb,  and  there  submitted  to  the  pen- 
ance imposed  upon  him.  A  night  and  a  day  were 
spent  in  prayer  and  tears,  imploring  the  interces- 
sion in  heaven  of  him  who  had  been  his  enemy  on 


138  THE  NORMAN  PERIOD 

earth.  The  bitter  fruit  of  this  victory  of  the 
Church,  it  now  remained  forEngland  to  realize 

H.therto  the  popes  had  refrained  from  inter- 
fering with  the  struggles  in  England  which  were 
subjecting  the  nation  to  its  control.    But  when 
Innocent  III.  mounted  the  papal  throne  in  nog 
he  undertook  the  task  which  his  predecessors  had 
neglected.    Disposing  of  all  other  affairs  which 
might  embarrass  him,  he  turned  his  attention  to 
England  with  the  purpose  of  bringing  that  refrac- 
tory kingdom  into  formal  submission  to  the  au 
thority  of  Rome.    The  moment  was  a  propitious 
one.    King  John  had  made  himself  obnoxious  by 
his  tyranny  to  the  people,  to  the  great  barons 
and  also  to  the  dignitaries  of  the  Church.  When 
Innocent  proceeded,  contrary  to  the  customs  of 
the  English  Church,  to  appoint  Stephen  Langton 
his  old  friend,  to  be  archbishop  of  Canterbury  and 
the  appointment  was  resisted  by  John,  the  pope 
issued  the  ban  and  interdict  which  freed  the  sub- 
jects of  the  king  from  their  oath  of  allegiance, 
and  forbade  also  the  performance  of  Church  ser- 
vices throughout  the  kingdom  with  the  exception 
of  baptism  and  extreme  unction.    In  the  year 
1209  he  excommunicated  the  king.    For  nearly 
two  years  John  continued  his  opposition  despite 
the  action  of  the  pope  and  his  desertion  by  the 
clergy.    But  when  France  began  to  prepare  an 
army  for  the  purpose  of  invading  the  kingdom 


OF  THE  ENGLISH  CHURCH. 


J  39 


and  driving  him  from  his  throne,  the  spirit  of  the 
man  was  overcome  and  he  stooped  to  the  lowest 
degradation.  He  resigned  the  crown  of  England 
and  Ireland  into  the  hands  of  the  papal  legate  and 
received  it  back  again  as  a  gift  of  pure  grace  on 
the  part  of  the  pope,  to  be  held  henceforth  as  a 
papal  fief  on  condition  of  the  payment  of  an 
annual  tribute  of  a  thousand  marks. 

Such  was  the  humiliation  of  England  at  the 
hands  of  the  great  Pope,  Innocent  III.,  who  re- 
garded himself  as  the  sun  shining  by  his  own  in- 
herent light,  while  the  kingdoms  of  Europe  were 
regarded  as  satellites  or  planets  shining  with  his 
reflected  light.  It  was  the  custom  of  the  popes  to 
apply  to  themselves  the  large  language  of  the  in- 
spired Psalms  of  David.  A  favorite  passage  was 
the  language  of  the  second  Psalm  :  The  kings  of 
the  earth  stand  up  and  the  rulers  take  counsel  to- 
gether against  the  Lord  and  against  His  anointed. 
Hildebrand  on  his  death-bed  applied  to  himself 
the  words :  /  have  loved  righteousness  and  hated 
iniquity,  therefore  I  die  in  exile.  The  attendant 
priest  encouraged  him,  "  Thou  canst  not  die  in 
exile,  vicar  of  Christ  and  His  apostle  ;  thou  hast 
the  heathen  for  thine  inheritance  and  the  uttermos 
parts  <f  the  earth  for  thy  possession."  It  was  a 
favorite  passage  with  Innocent  the  Great  :  The 
righteous  sh  ill  have  dominion  over  them  in  the 
morning.    Though  thou  hast  lain  among  the  pots, 


1 40  THE  NORMA  Ar  PER  10 D 

yet  shalt  thou  be  as  the  wings  of  a  dove,  wMch 
hath  silver  wings  and  her  feathers  like  gold. 

A  few  years  ago,  in  the  pages  of  the  Nineteenth 
Century,  in  which  educated   Englishmen  carry 
on  a  sort  of  private   conversation   before  the 
world,  Cardinal   Manning  re-told   the  story  of 
Innocent  and  King  John,  asking  the  English  peo- 
ple, if  it  would  not  be  for  the  interests  of  the 
nation  to  have  such  a  fatherly  adviser  restored  to 
his  authority,  who  by  his  word  could  check  disor- 
der and  misrule.    But  the  Cardinal  had  forgotten 
the  episode  of  Magna  Charta,  in  which  the  op- 
pressed and   humiliated   people   asserted  their 
rights— the  charter  of  English  liberties  to  our 
own  day.    Innocent  had  protested  against  the 
Charter,  and  done  his  utmost  to  prevent  its  ac- 
ceptance.   When  the  distinguished  Cardinal  was 
reminded  of  this  circumstance,  he  replied  that 
Pope  Innocent  had  not  probably  read  the  charter 
and  was  ignorant  of  its  real  meaning  and  pur- 
pose. 

It  is  one  of  the  wonderful  anomalies  of  human 
life,  which  may  lend  consolation  in  the  hour  of 
defeat  and  humiliation,  that  seeming  victories 
sometimes  promote  the  cause  which  ostensibly 
they  have  crushed.  The  conquest  of  the  pope  over 
the  English  nation  was  a  crisis  in  its  history  from 
which  date  the  movements  that  gave  England  the 
ultimate  victory. 


OF  THE  ENGLISH  CHURCH. 


I4I 


It  only  needed  that  the  Church  of  Rome  as  em- 
bodied in  the  pope  should  achieve  the  end  for 
which  it  labored  in  order  that  the  falseness  and 
untenability  of  its  ambitious  project  should  stand 
revealed.  From  this  time  on  the  interest  of  Eng- 
lish history  lies  in  tracing  the  steps  by  which  the 
nation  grew  and  the  papacy  declined.  The  impos- 
sibility of  one  man's  ruling  all  the  states  of  Eu- 
rope became  increasingly  manifest.  The  papacy 
was  a  mischievous  thing,  because  of  its  impossi- 
bility. We  cannot  see  very  far  into  the  future, 
but  one  thing  we  can  see,  and  should  most  de- 
voutly believe,  that  God's  will  is  that  nationalities 
should  be  regarded  as  a  sacred  end  in  themselves. 
God  has  appointed  that  the  peoples  of  the  world 
should  dwell  in  certain  large  families  which  we  call 
nations.  Here  is  an  ultimate  result  in  the  divine 
purpose  beyond  which  we  cannot  go. 

There  is  a  mystery  about  the' birth  and  growth 
of  a  nation  which  we  cannot  always  trace  in  the 
complicated  process  which  it  involves.  It  is  true 
of  states,  as  it  is  of  individuals,  that  history  seems 
careful  of  the  national  type,  while  careless  of  the 
individual  nation.  There  are  many  attempts  at 
achieving  nationality  and  but  few  successes.  The 
papacy  had  risen  in  Europe  when  nations  were 
struggling  to  their  birth  or  were  still  in  the  weak- 
ness of  infancy.  Everywhere  the  papacy  stood 
for  resistance  to  the  growth  of  the  national  con- 


142  THE  NORMAN  PERIOD 

sciousness.    The  whole  system  of  the  Roman 
canon  law,  from  the  time  of  the  forged  decretals 
conspired  to  hinder,  to  crush,  if  it  were  possible,' 
the  rising  instinct  which  was  urging  the  different 
peoples  of  Europe  to  the  attainment  of  national 
independence.    The  question  may  arise  what  use- 
ful purpose,  in  a  world  where  God  is  ruling,  such 
an  institution  as  the  papacy  may  have  subserved. 
It  is  best  to  be  fair  always  in  discussing  such  a 
question,  for  we  gain  nothing  by  sacrificing  or  ob- 
scuring the  truth.    Let  us  admit,  then,  that  the 
papacy  may  have  served  some  useful  ends,  in  the 
divine  economy.    If  it  served  no  other  purpose, 
it  stood  as  a  resisting  force,  against  which  the 
nations  threw  themselves,  an  obstacle  which  they 
must  overcome,  in  order  to  their  successful  asser- 
tion of  national  existence.    Purification  of  the  na- 
tional purpose,  the  clear  consciousness  of  a  divine 
call,  must  be  reached  by  a  struggle  with  such  oppo- 
sition as  the  papacy  presented.    But  other  ends 
were  also  served  by  the  papacy.    It  held  the  na- 
tions together  in  their  infancy  by  such  close  ties 
as  to  give  them  a  common  likeness  and  sympathy, 
a  feeling  of  kinship  which  makes  them  a  family  of 
nations  in  the  Kingdom  of  God.    The  striking 
difference  in  this  respect  between   Europe  and 
Asia  has   been   often  remarked.    In  Asia,  the 
great  kingdoms  are  separated  by  physical  barriers 
and  by  other  differences,  such  as  religion,  to  such 


OF  THE  ENGLISH  CHURCH. 


■43 


an  extent  that  they  have  nothing  in  common. 
India  and  China  are  as  distinct  and  widely  apart 
as  if  they  were  in  different  hemispheres.  But  in 
despite  of  the  differences  which  mark  them,  there 
is  a  spirit  of  community  among  the  nations  of  Eu- 
rope, which,  though  it  cannot  altogether  prevent 
hostility  and  war,  is  yet  a  basis  for  the  growth  of 
the  large  sense  of  humanity — the  promise  of  the 
ultimate  unity  of  the  family  of  God. 

Whatever  may  have  been  the  evils  of  the  papal 
dominion — and  they  were  great — yet  individual 
popes  were  capable  of  disinterested  action,  and 
did  not  always  abuse  their  power.  The  papacy 
served  as  a  court  of  arbitration  between  monarch- 
ies and  kingdoms,  before  any  system  of  interna- 
tional law  had  arisen,  or  was  yet  possible.  Those 
who  still  maintain,  like  Cardinal  Manning,  the 
usefulness  and  the  necessity  of  the  papacy,  fasten 
their  gaze  upon  circumstances  like  these,  and  feel 
that  history  is  unjustly  read  when  they  are  sup- 
pressed or  overlooked.  We,  too,  may  then  admit 
that  the  papacy  has  served  a  divine  end.  But 
even  divine  institutions  may  be  removed  by  the 
same  hand  that  has  created  them,  in  order  to  give 
place  to  institutions  more  fully  charged  with  the 
divine  will.  So  Judaism,  which  was  divinely  or- 
dered, has  given  way  to  the  Christian  Church, 
while  the  Jew  still  remains  unable  to  see  that 
progress  is  the  law,  in  the  evolution  and  revelation 
of  the  will  of  God  in  the  world. 


144  THE  NORMAN  PERIOD 

From  the  moment  when  the  papacy  attained 
the  fulness  of  its  power,  the  great  Protestant 
movement  began,  which  called  for  reformation 
and  ended  finally  in  revolution.    Great  bishops 
and  statesmen  in  the  English  Church,  who  were 
devoted  to  Rome  and  never  thought  of  question- 
ing its  divine  claim,  appeared  in  protest  against 
the  evils  it  engendered  all  through  the  thirteenth 
and  fourteenth  centuries.    Not  only  were  things 
no  better  in  England,  after  Innocent  the  Great 
had  conquered  the  king,— they  rapidly  grew  to  be 
worse  than  they  had  been  under  the  most  tyranni- 
cal and  irreligious  of  English  sovereigns.  Papal 
or  religious  investiture  brought  forth  no  better 
fruits  than  secular  investiture.    The  Church  was 
no  better  off  when  it  was  robbed  by  the  papacy 
than  when  it  was  robbed  by  its  own  king.  The 
difference  was  that  the  money  now  went  out  of 
the  kingdom,  when  before  it  was  used  at  home 
and  indirectly  enriched  the  people.    The  English 
Parliament  complained  in  1376  that  five  time- 
as  much  money  went  out  of  the  country  to  sup- 
port the  pope  as  the  whole  produce  of  the  taxes 
which  accrued   to  the  king.     The  popes  now 
claimed  the  ownership  of  all  the  benefices  or 
property  of  the  Church.    Nowhere  in  Europe  was 
the  practice  carried  out  to  a  greater  extent  than 
in  England,  by  which  the  best  livings  and  digni- 
ties were  filled  by  the  nominees  of  the  pope 


OF  THE  ENGLISH  CHURCH. 


'4  5 


In  England  it  was  almost  like  another  foreign 
invasion,  when  Italian  and  Spanish  and  French 
priests  were  everywhere  found  in  English  monas- 
teries as  priors  or  abbots,  in  English  canonries 
and  English  bishoprics.  They  did  not  under- 
stand the  language  of  the  people,  they  did  not  in 
many  cases  even  deign  to  reside  in  England,  but 
simply  drew  the  revenues  of  their  livings.  If  the 
kings  had  claimed  gifts  when  they  appointed  high 
dignitaries,  the  popes  claimed  still  greater  gifts, 
until  it  almost  impoverished  a  monastery  or  a 
bishopric  when  it  was  obliged  to  fill  a  vacancy. 
In  this  case  it  was  a  so-called  spiritual  power,  pro- 
fessing to  be  above  the  temporal,  which  was  weak- 
ening the  Church  no  less  than  the  State. 

It  may  seem  unworthy  in  itself  that  the  great 
issues  of  Church  and  State — the  supremest  issues 
of  human  affairs  should  turn  so  largely  on  the 
question  of  money.  But  money  is  only  the  sym- 
bol of  other  things.  Men  are  quick  to  see  the 
large  evils  which  its  improper  use  creates.  In  the 
relations  of  life  the  highest  qualities  or  the  lowest 
of  our  nature  are  brought  to  light  by  the  use  or 
abuse  of  money.  When  a  so-called  spiritual  power 
appears  to  be  covetous  of  wealth,  or  eagerly  con- 
cerned to  find  money  for  its  schemes,  it  is  degrad- 
ing the  entire  ecclesiastical  service  of  which  it 
is  the  head,  and  it  will  not  be  long  before  the 
eyes  of  a  people  are  opened  to  its  hollowness  and 


146 


THE  NORMAN  PERIOD 


iniquity.  Just  as  a  partisan  civil  service  is  an  evil 
corrupting  the  life  of  a  nation,  a  debased  ecclesi- 
astical service  undoes  the  spiritual  vitality  of  the 
Church. 

It  was  no  doubt  true  that  the  papacy  had  need 
of  all  the  money  it  could  raise.  As  it  grew  in 
power  and  absorbed  in  itself  the  government  of 
the  Church  and  the  world,  it  became  a  more  and 
more  costly  thing  to  support.  Self-government 
in  Church  or  State  is  comparatively  inexpensive. 
An  absolute  monarchy,  such  as  the  papacy  really 
was,  may  become  so  expensive  an  object  to  main- 
tain that  at  last  it  may  break  down  from  its  ina- 
bility to  obtain  the  money  needed  for  its  support. 

English  legislation  on  the  affairs  of  the  Church 
from  the  thirteenth  century  onwards,  shows  a  de- 
termination to  go  to  the  root  of  the  question  in 
regard  to  money.  In  1279  the  statute  of  Mort- 
main was  enacted,  which  forbade  the  transfer  of 
any  landed  property  to  the  Church  without  the 
king's  consent.  What  was  given  to  the  Church 
now  began  to  be  regarded  as  tending  to  the  im- 
poverishment of  the  nation.  Again  in  1343  there 
was  passed  the  Statute  of  Provisors  which  pro- 
hibited the  pope  from  appropriating  the  revenues 
of  English  benefices.  When  the  aggrieved  parties 
were  found  carrying  their  cases  to  Rome,  it  was 
enacted,  in  the  Statute  of  Praemunire  in  1352, 
that  outlawry  should  be  the  penalty  for  carrying 


OF  THE  ENGLISH  CHURCH. 


147 


pleas  to  Rome,  which  belonged  to  the  king's 
court.  In  the  year  1379  an  act  was  passed  pro- 
hibiting the  holding  of  benefices  in  England  by 
foreigners.  The  Statute  of  Praemunire  was  again 
confirmed  in  1392,  and  in  1404  the  two  statutes 
of  Provisors  and  Praemunire  were  re-enacted,  by 
which  the  pope  was  henceforth  prevented  from 
appointing  to  English  bishoprics,  and  the  king 
was- forbidden  to  grant  exceptions  to  the  law. 

But  there  was  a  deeper  protest  in  the  heart  of 
the  English  nation  than  the  desire  to  save  the 
people  from  impoverishment.  Great  men  arose, 
who  saw  with  increasing  clearness  the  ideal  of  what 
a  Church  should  be.  Such  an  one  was  Grosse- 
teste,  Bishop  of  Lincoln,  who  protested  against 
the  abuses  caused  by  the  presence  of  a  foreign 
clergy,  and  was  able  to  prevent  Pope  Innocent  IV. 
from  making  his  infant  nephew  a  canon  of  Lin- 
coln Cathedral.  William  of  Occam,  though  he 
spent  most  of  his  life  abroad,  was  an  Englishman 
by  birth  and  training, — a  philosopher  as  well  as 
a  statesman,  who  broke  down,  by  his  vigorous  in- 
cisive arguments,  the  vicious  principles  of  the 
Scholastic  philosophy,  especially  denouncing  that 
metaphysical  conception  of  the  Church  which  exag- 
gerated the  importance  of  institutions,  till  it  had 
made  impossible  the  freedom  and  growth  of  the 
individual  man.  The  famous  Bradwardin,  who 
became  Archbishop  of  Canterbury  in  1349,  asserted 


THE  NORMAN  PERIOD 


the  dependence  of  men  upon  God  for  their  sal- 
vation, following  Occam  also  in  pointing  away 
from  the  pope  to  Christ  as  the  only  real,  though 
invisible  Head  of  the  Church.  The  "Vision  of 
Piers  the  Ploughman,"  a  book  which  had  vast 
popularity  and  influence,  exposes  the  evils  which 
a  corrupt  official  service  was  creating,  sets  forth  in 
glowing  terms  the  Christian  ideal,  and  does  not 
hesitate  to  recommend  the  remedy  for  the  ills  of 
the  Church  to  its  highest  dignitaries.  An  evil  life 
is  for  him  an  evil  life,  whether  in  pope,  or  bishop, 
or  peasant. 

And  at  last  came  Wycliffe  in  the  fourteenth 
century,  who  may  be  regarded  as  the  greatest  man 
to  whom  the  English  Church  has  given  birth  in  all 
her  history.  With  a  brief  allusion  to  his  work,  I 
close  my  lecture.  It  is  a  remark  of  Milton,  that 
"  had  it  not  been  for  the  obstinate  perverseness 
of  our  prelates  against  the  divine  and  admirable 
spirit  of  Wycliffe,  to  suppress  him  as  a  schismatic 
and  innovator,  perhaps  neither  the  Bohemian 
Huss  and  Jerome,  no,  nor  the  name  of  Luther  and 
Calvin  had  ever  been  known.  The  glory  of  re- 
forming all  our  neighbors  had  then  been  ours." 
I  will  not  undertake  to  summarize  his  efforts 
for  the  reformation  of  the  Church  ;  how  he  re- 
sisted the  pope,  redefined  the  Christian  doctrines, 
rejected  abuses,  declaimed  against  monks,  trans- 
lated the  Scriptures,  preached   constantly,  and 


OF  THE  ENGLISH  CHURCH.  149 


sent  forth  preachers  in  his  own  spirit  throughout 
the  kingdom.  He  made  mistakes,  it  is  true;  in 
his  opposition  to  what  was  false,  he  may  have  gone 
to  false  extremes.  But  his  errors  may  be  forgiven 
to  one  who  has  done  more  for  Christendom  than 
any  other  Englishman. 

And  exactly  what  was  it  that  he  did,  that  made 
possible  the  overthrow  of  the  papacy,  and  the 
emancipation  of  England  from  a  foreign  usur- 
pation ?  I  should  answer  that  he  laid  down  a 
higher  doctrine  of  the  relation  of  Church  and  State. 
He  was  the  first  to  grasp  the  sacred  principle  of 
nationality,  to  implant  in  the  consciousness  of 
kings  and  people  the  idea  of  their  divine  and 
spiritual  calling  as  a  nation. 

The  kings  of  England  and  its  archbishops, 
through  the  Norman  period,  had  been  laboring 
unconsciously  for  the  great  end  which  Wycliffe 
now  unveiled  in  its  majesty.  But  because  they 
labored  unconsciously,  they  labored  often  ineffect- 
ually or  in  vain.  They  were  guided  by  an  instinct 
which  they  were  unable  to  formulate  or  define. 
But  they  builded  better  than  they  knew.  Take 
the  period  we  have  been  considering  as  a  whole, 
and  it  reveals  a  progressive  movement,  even  under 
weak  or  immoral  kings,  toward  the  same  common 
goal.  It  is  not  a  history  which  one  need  to  be 
ashamed  of  or  to  apologize  for.  There  was  some 
latent  divine  element  in  the  atmosphere  of  that 


1  SO  THE  NORMAN  PERIOD 

little  island  beyond  the  seas,  which  gives  to  Eng- 
land a  homogeneous  principle  through  all  its 
career.  Hardly  had  the  Norman  kings  landed  in 
England,  when  the  old  process  of  the  earlier  his- 
tory was  resumed,  and  they  began  to  work  for  a 
national  end.  Archbishops  of  Canterbury,  even 
an  Anselm,  or  a  Becket,  or  a  Stephen  Langton, 
could  not  escape  the  subtle  contagion  of  this  mys- 
terious  motive.  There  are  phases  of  their  ad- 
ministration which  may  have  a  national  bearing. 

But  the  great  deficiency  of  the  period  was  the 
lack  of  an  intelligible  formula  or  doctrine,  which 
would  enable  the  nation  to  reject  the  false  doctrine 
by  which  the  popes  built  up  their  supremacy.' 
When  it  was  said  that  the  Church  was  above  the 
State,  because  the  State  dealt  with  temporal  or 
secular  concerns,  the  things  that  related  to  this 
earthly  life,  while  the  Church  had  the  exclusive 
prerogative  of  dealing  with  spiritual  or  eternal  in- 
terests, no  one  lifted  up  a  voice  in  behalf  of  the 
State  as  having  equally  with  the  Church,  a  spirit- 
ual  origin,  a  spiritual  purpose  and  a  spiritual  end. 
Everywhere  throughout  Europe,  men  acquiesced 
in  the  common  statements  that  only  the  Church 
was  spiritual,  and  as  such,  must  be  placed  above 
all  earthly  potentates.  So  long  as  they  continued 
to  think  so,  the  power  of  the  Roman  popes  was 
secure.  What  is  the  spiritual,  when  we  ask  for  its 
definition  ?    Is  it  not  the  unseen,  the  end  not  yet 


OF  THE  ENGLISH  CHURCH.  1 5  I 

attained,  the  moral  ideal  to  be  achieved  in  the 
future,  toward  which  the  present  is  tending?  The 
things  which  are  seen  are  temporal,  the  things  which 
are  not  seen  are  spiritual  or  eternal.  The  State 
then  labors  for  the  spiritual  and  moves  toward  it 
as  by  a  divine  decree.  Wycliffe  dared  to  hold  up 
before  the  kings  of  England,  a  divine  ideal  which 
redeemed  the  nation  from  the  degradation  of  in- 
feriority and  subjection  to  the  Church. 

But  if  the  nation  has  a  spiritual,  divine  character 
no  less  than  the  Church,  where  then  lies  the  dif- 
ference between  them  ?  Wycliffe's  answer  is  clear 
and  emphatic.  The  State  represents  the  dominion 
of  Christ,  the  power  and  rule  of  Christ  in  the 
world.  If  there  must  be  a  vicar  of  Christ,  it  is  the 
king  or  ruler  of  the  nation,  not  the  head  of  the 
ecclesiastical  principality.  The  State  expresses 
and  reveals  the  dominium  or  the  power  of  Christ  ; 
the  Church  represents  the  ministerium,  the  service 
of  Christ ;  as  when  Christ  remarks :  /  am  among 
you  as  lie  that  serveth.  The  kingdoms  of  the 
world  are  the  kingdoms  of  our  Lord  and  of  His 
Christ ;  their  power  is  the  power  of  Christ  to  whom 
is  given  all  power  in  Heaven  and  earth.  One  func- 
tion of  the  Church  is  to  minister  to  the  well-being 
of  the  State,  in  all  the  countless  ways  of  spiritual 
ministration,  of  which  Christ,  who  is  still  among 
us  as  one  that  serveth,  is  the  type  and  illustration. 
It  is  the  function  of  the  Church  to  hold  up  con= 


152 


THE  NORMAN  PERIOD 


stantly  before  the  State  its  divine  calling;  in  its 
prophetic  office,  to  declare  constantly  and  un- 
hesitatingly the  divine  will. 

Christ  has  a  double  character,  one  side  of  which 
is  represented  by  the  State,  and  the  other  by  the 
Church.  If  either  is  higher  than  the  other,  it  is 
the  function  of  service, — the  ministerium,  as  when 
it  is  said,  He  that  is  chief  among  you,  let  him  be  as 
servant.  If  the  Church  represents  what  is  higher 
than  the  State,  it  is  so  because  and  in  so  far  as  the 
Church  possesses  faith  in  the  spiritual  purpose  of 
the  nation,  even  when  the  nation  is  without  faith, 
— that  faith  which  is  the  substance  of  things  hoped 
for,  the  evidence  of  things  not  seen.  But  the  con- 
dition of  servantship  still  in  this  world  implies  a 
willingness  to  accept  humiliation  as  its  lot.  Come 
what  may,  the  State  must  have  the  authority. 
Priests  and  prophets  have  never  known  how  to 
exercise  power.  The  worst  governments  the 
world  has  seen  have  been  administered  by  ecclesi- 
astics. It  is  a  mixture  of  things  which  are  in  their 
nature  incongruous,  when  the  prophet  whose  mis- 
sion is  to  reveal  a  divine  truth  by  moral  insight, 
infringes  upon  the  calling  of  the  State  and  seeks 
to  carry  out  his  message  by  force.  So  long  as  the 
world  continues  must  humiliation  attend  the  min- 
isterium, which  waits  upon  the  suffering  Christ  in 
humanity,  when  hungry,  or  naked,  or  sick,  or  in 
prison,  or  in  the  captivities  of  the  human  race, 
from  which  it  seeks  redemption. 


OF  THE  ENGLISH  CHURCH.  I  53 


This  then  was  the  work  of  the  English  Wycliffe, 
to  place  before  his  own  countrymen  and  before 
the  world  the  divine  ideal  of  the  State  or  nation. 
When  it  came  to  the  Reformation  of  the  sixteenth 
century,  it  is  the  cause  of  the  nations  against  the 
empire  of  the  pope.  "  The  swing  of  the  monarchy 
of  Henry  VIII.,  "  as  Canon  Mozley  has  remarked, 
"  was  simply  nationalism  and  nothing  else, — the 
nation  delighted  in  it." 

The  divine  calling  of  the  nations  is  as  yet  very 
far  from  being  realized.  But  it  has  not  hurt  the 
nations  to  have  proclaimed  their  true  mission  ; 
nor  has  it  hurt  or  weakened  the  Church.  The  one 
thing  which  America  most  needs  to-day  is  the  re- 
proclamation  of  Wycliff  e's  message.  For  there  are 
those  among  us  and  notably  also  a  foreign  Church 
whose  aim,  whose  necessity  it  is  to  rob  the  State 
of  its  spiritual  prerogative  in  order  to  its  own  ad- 
vancement. Here  in  this  new  world,  the  conflict 
of  the  ages  is  impending  ;  indeed,  there  are  signs 
that  the  struggle  has  already  begun.  If  our  vision 
is  clear,  and  as  Churchmen  we  can  follow  Wycliffe 
in  asserting  the  divine  dominion  of  the  State,  the 
result  cannot  be  doubtful.  By  our  hesitancy  or 
inaction  the  result  may  be  retarded;  but  if  the 
Word  of  God  be  true,  it  will  only  be  a  tarrying  of 
the  vision  until  the  time  be  ripe  for  its  fulfilment. 
In  the  book  of  the  revelation  of  St.  John  the 
Divine,  where  the  final  glorifiaction  of  things  is  un- 


I  54  THE  NORMAN  PERIOD,  E TC. 

veiled,  it  is  not  as  Churches  or  as  branches  of  the 
Church  that  the  world  stands  at  last  before  God 
that  humanity  takes  its  rank  in  the  temple  and 
city  of  God.  Into  that  city  of  which  God  is  the 
light,  the  kings  of  the  earth  are  represented  as 
bringing  their  glory.  And  they  bring  the  honor 
and  the  glory  of  the  nations  into  it. 


Cbe  "Reformation  period 


LECTURE  IV. 


THE  RT.  REV.  H.  T.   KINGDON,  D.D., 
Bishop  Coadjutor  of  Fredericton. 

THE  REFORM  A  TION  PERIOD. 

The  Reformation  of  the  Church  of  England 
was  not  the  work  of  a  few  years,  nor  the  result  of 
any  one  force.  It  was  the  crisis  of  centuries  of 
discontent,  the  irrepressible  outburst  of  long  pent 
up  indignation,  brought  about  by  the  resultant  of 
many  forces,  religious,  political,  financial,  domestic, 
civil.  It  took  the  form  in  England  of  a  proleptic 
assertion  of  the  Monroe  doctrine,  that  no  foreign 
interference  could  be  tolerated  in  domestic  matters. 
This  feeling  had  always  been  very  strong,  and  it 
so  often  showed  itself  where  opportunity  offered, 
that  it  may  almost  be  said  that  the  Reformation 
commenced  from  the  time  the  Bishop  of  old  Rome 
attempted  to  interfere  in  temporal  and  spiritual 
matters  in  England. 

The  first  act  of  the  English  as  a  nation  was  t< 
compel  the  acceptance  of  the  Great  Charter.  This, 
has  been  said  to  be  "  the  first  great  public  act  o\ 
the  nation  after  it  realized  its  own  identity  :  the 
157 


158 


THE  REFORM  A  TION  PERIOD. 


consummation  of  the  work  for  which  unconsciously 
kings,  prelates,  and  lawyers  had  been  laboring  for 
a  century."  The  very  first  clause  secured  the  free- 
dom ot  the  Church  of  England :  "  Quod  Ecclesia 
Anglicana*  libera  sit,  et  habeat  omnia  jura  sua 
integra  et  libertates  suas  illaesas."  That  the  Church 
of  England  be  free,  and  have  all  her  rights  undi- 
minished, and  her  liberties  unimpaired.  From 
this  we  might  say  that  the  Reformation  began 
with  the  signing  of  the  Great  Charter  on  June  15, 
A.D.  121 5. 

A  century  later  the  same  feeling  was  evidenced 
in  the  Statute  of  Provisors  (as  it  was  called)  passed 
in  A.D.  1 35 1,  and  of  Praemunire  passed  two  years 
later.  The  Bishop  of  Rome  had  claimed  to  sus- 
pend the  right  of  presentation  to  benefices  in 
England,  in  order  that  he  might  make  provision 
for  his  own  foreign  adherents.  Against  this  the 
Statute  of  Provisors  was  aimed  ;  while  the  Statute 
of  Praemunire  forbade  appeals  from  the  King's 
Courts,  or  obtaining  bulls  or  other  instruments 
from  Rome,  under  penalty  of  forfeiture  of  goods, 
personal  freedom,  and  protection  of  the  law. 

But  these  were  mainly  political,  and  did  not 
touch  the  conscience  so  much  as  the  terrible  decay 

*  The  title  Ecclesia  Anglicana,  was  anticipated  in  the  cor- 
respondence of  St.  Thomas  a  Becket ;  where  it  is  used  in- 
terchangeably with  Ecclesia  Anglorum  which  had  been  used 
by  Bede  in  the  eighth  century. 


THE  REFORM  A  TION  PERIOD. 


159 


of  vital  religion  and  morality  throughout  Europe. 
From  the  beginning  of  the  fifteenth  century,  there 
was  one  universal  wail  throughout  Europe  from 
holy  men,  deploring  the  state  of  religion,  and 
laxity  of  morals.  In  Brown's  Fasciculus  is  a  list 
of  works  on  the  reformation  of  the  Church.  There 
are  about  one  hundred  such  writers  between  A.D. 
1400  and  A.D.  1550.  This  would  mean  a  great 
deal  for  a  period  commencing  before  the  invention 
of  printing,  yet  the  list  is  not  by  any  means  ex- 
haustive. I  possess  a  little  tract  printed  in  1489, 
"  De  Miseriis  Curatorum,"  on  the  woes  of  parish 
priests,  which  is  not  enumerated  in  Brown's  Cat- 
alogue. It  seems  to  have  been  published  in 
Saxony,  as  reference  is  made  to  Meissen  in  Saxony 
as  a  well-known  wealthy  benefice.  The  tract, 
consisting  of  fourteen  pages,  must  have  made 
some  stir  at  the  time,  as  at  least  three  other 
editions  were  published.  It  is  certainly  valuable 
as  exhibiting  the  state  of  things  from  the  stand- 
point of  a  parish  priest  ;  and  we  may  learn  from 
this  why  Saxony  became  so  favorable  to  the  views 
of  the  reformers.  The  writer  says  that  the  priests 
were  worried  beyond  measure  by  "  novem  diaboli." 
I  am  sorry  to  say  that  one  of  the  diaboli  was  the 
bishop  himself.  Another  is  the  itinerant  preacher, 
and  the  account  given  reminds  one  of  the  dialogue 
of  Erasmus  about  the  Franciscans,  published  about 
thirty  years  later.    The  Saxony  priest  complains 


1 60  THE  REFORM  A  TION  PERIOD. 


of  the  exacting  character  of  these  preachers.  "  If 
you  do  not  always  give  him  the  most  delicate 
meats  to  eat  and  spiced  wine  with  the  best  ale  to 
drink,  he  will  preach  about  it  in  the  pulpit,  and 
hold  you  up  to  scorn  before  the  people."  But  the 
greatest  wail  is  about  one  of  the  diaboli,  which 
perhaps  is  the  saddest  of  all  :  this  is  about  the 
housekeeper  or  cook.  In  the  midst  of  this  the 
writer  says :  "  There  are  three  officials  of  the 
utmost  necessity  to  mankind,  the  hangman,  the 
knacker,  the  curate.  The  hangman  strings  up 
thieves  on  the  gallows  ;  the  knacker  removes  dead 
horses  ;  the  curate  teaches  the  people.  The  world 
cannot  do  without  them  ;  otherwise  the  thieves 
would  seize  everything;  horses  would  become 
offensive;  men  would  become  brutal.  But  the 
more  necessary  they  are  to  men,  the  more  men 
despise  them.  There  is  no  difference  between 
them  in  the  opinion  of  the  laymen.  Tell  me, 
prithee,  what  virtuous,  neat,  chaste  woman  will 
ever  be  a  servant  to  a  hangman,  a  knacker,  or  a 
curate?"  Thus  on  the  continent  of  Western 
Europe  there  was  a  call  for  reformation. 

The  cry  for  reformation  was  equally  earnest  in 
England,  and  the  English  spirit  revolted  against 
foreign  interference  as  well  as  against  the  means 
by  which  it  was  supported.  England  had  long 
been  regarded  as  a  milch  cow  to  yield  provision  for 
needy  Italians  who  never  visited  England  and 


THE  REFORM  A  TION  PERIOD.  1 6 1 

spent  their  revenues  in  the  Roman  Court.  For 
fifty  years  the  See  of  Worcester  was  filled  by  a 
succession  of  Italians  who  spent  most  of  their 
time  and  money  away  from  England.  Among 
them  was  Giulio  de  Medici,  the  bastard  son  of 
Giuliano,  the  brother  of  Lorenzo  the  Magnificent. 
This  Giulio  was  afterwards  pope  under  the  title  of 
Clement  VII.  At  Salisbury,  Cardinal  Campeggio 
was  bishop  or  was  so  called  and  drew  all  the  in- 
come away,  while  he  was  really  bishop  of  Bologna 
and  never  visited  Salisbury.  At  the  same  time 
the  dean  of  Salisbury  was  an  Italian  who  never 
came  near  his  cathedral  and  after  twenty-four  years 
was  compelled  to  resign.  These  were  provided  by 
the  pope.  Can  we  wonder  that  complaints  were 
continually  made  that  the  glorious  cathedral  of 
Salisbury  was  becoming  ruinous  ?  Such  facts  as 
these  set  going  the  financial  force  which  tended  to 
the  Reformation.  After  much  forbearance,  the 
English  revolted  against  their  ecclesiastical  rev- 
enues being  spent  to  glorify  the  papal  court. 

Then  there  was  the  sickening  adulation  paid  to 
the  pope;  as  the  Canonist  complains,  some  sought 
by  flattery  to  equal  the  popes  with  God  Himself. 
Nay,  in  the  Gloss  on  the  Decretal  there  is  the  title 
"  Nostrum  Dominum  Deum  Papam,"  our  Lord 
God  the  Pope,  still  printed  certainly  as  late  as 
1609.  This  greatly  moved  such  as  knew  of  it  in 
England,  and  is  one  of  the  things  mentioned  with 


1 62  THE  REFORM  A  T10N  PERIOD. 


abhorrence  by  Bishop  Jewel.  Still  it  does  not 
seem  much  different  from  the  claim  reported  to 
have  been  made  by  Pius  IX.  on  the  first  of  April, 
1866.  The  French  legitimist  journal  "Union," 
gave  the  text  of  his  address  in  which  he  said  : 
"  I  am  the  way,  the  truth  and  the  life.  They  who 
are  with  me  are  with  the  Church  ;  they  who  are 
not  with  me  are  out  of  the  Church,  they  are  out 
of  the  way,  the  truth  and  the  life."  It  is  a  large 
claim. 

Then  there  were  the  pretended  miracles  and 
miraculous  images,  the  exposure  of  which  caused 
a  great  shock  to  the  devout  minds  of  men.  Henry 
VIII.  was  a  firm  believer  in  the  Blood  of  Hales  till 
nearly  the  end  of  his  life.  At  Hales  Abbey  the 
pilgrim  looked  at  a  phial  said  to  contain  the  Blood 
of  the  Saviour  which  was  invisible  to  them  in 
mortal  sin.  Some  colored  substance  there  was 
within  glass  of  unequal  thickness,  and  by  turning 
the  vessel  half  round,  this  was  hidden  or  revealed 
at  the  option  of  the  showman.  Some  of  the 
more  celebrated  images  were  exhibited  at  Paul's 
Cross  at  sermon  time,  with  the  springs  and  levers 
by  which  they  were  worked.  It  seems  hard  to 
believe  this,  and  yet  somewhat  of  it  is  continued 
in  our  own  day.  A  friend  of  mine,  twenty-five 
years  ago,  was  shown  in  Spain  a  fine  white  feather, 
which,  said  the  priest,  fell  from  the  wing  of  the 
Angel  Gabriel  at  the  Annunciation.    "  Do  you 


THE  REFORM  A  TION  PERIOD.  1 63 


believe  that  ?  "  enquired  my  friend.  The  priest 
took  a  pinch  of  snuff,  and  said :  "  Good  for  the 
people." 

Can  we  wonder  at  the  revolt  against  all  this  ? 
Nay,  we  should  rather  wonder  that  the  revolt  came 
not  earlier.  It  has  been  well  pointed  out  that  at 
the  Council  of  Pisa  in  1409,  Constance  in  141 5  and 
just  before  the  Council  of  Basle,  English  leaders 
had  urged  a  reformation  ;  and  for  a  long  time,  they 
waited  for  this  to  come  from  without.  But  it  came 
not.  It  was  like  the  fable  of  the  lark  and  her  nest- 
lings. So  long  as  the  farmer  waited  for  his  neigh- 
bors to  come  to  his  help  in  harvest,  the  lark  knew 
she  was  safe;  directly  the  farmer  determined  to  set 
to  work  himself,  she  flitted  with  her  young.  At 
length  the  English  Church  determined  to  reform 
herself ;  but  how  was  this  to  be  ?  There  was  the 
example  set  on  the  continent  of  Europe  in  various 
parts.  At  Pontresina  on  the  Engadine,  the  popu- 
lation, inflamed  by  the  earnest  preaching  of  a 
Reformer,  dismissed  their  priest,  stripped  their 
Church  and  flung  all  the  furniture  and  ornaments, 
images,  aye,  and  the  sacred  vessels  into  the  river, 
and  inaugurated  a  devoted  personal  worship  of 
our  Blessed  Lord  of  which  psalmody  from  the 
whole  congregation  formed  the  chief  part.  At 
Zurich,  Zwingli  disregarded  the  teaching  of  the 
Church,  and  sought  to  build  up  a  body  of  doctrine 
from  his  private  study  of  the  Greek  Testament. 


164  THE  RE  FORM  A  TION  PERIOD. 


No  such  scheme  found  favor  in  England.  English 
people  loved  law  and  order;  and  all  was  done 
legally  and  in  order.  Everything  was  reformed 
by  a  careful  examination  of  antiquity.  It  was,  in- 
deed, a  passionate  appeal  to  the  primitive  Church, 
so  far  as  the  practice  and  teaching  of  the  earliest 
Church  could  be  discovered.  For  this  there  had 
been  much  providential  preparation. 

The  fall  of  the  Greek  empire  was  part  of  this 
preparation.  Rome  said  that  Constantinople  fell 
because  the  Greeks  did  not  symbolize  with  Rome. 
But  in  the  Thirty-nine  Articles,  Constantinople  is 
the  only  Patriarchate  omitted  from  imputation  of 
error,  out  of  a  tender  consideration  for  their  late 
distress. 

The  siege  and  destruction  of  Constantinople  by 
the  Turks  had  driven  many  learned  Greeks  to 
Western  Europe;  and  their  presence  promoted 
the  study  of  the  Greek  language  and  of  the  Greek 
Testament.  The  study  was  soon  introduced  into 
England,  and  without  doubt  helped  on  the  Ref- 
ormation there.  John  Colet,  the  eldest  son  of  an 
eminent  citizen  of  London,  studied  Greek  in  France 
and  Italy,  and  returned  to  lecture  on  the  Greek  of 
S.  Paul's  Epistle  at  Oxford.  Receiving  preferment 
in  London,  he  returned  there,  and  soon  was  made 
Dean  of  S.  Paul's.  He  at  once  began  to  preach  on 
the  Epistles  in  the  Cathedral,  and  founded  S.  Paul's 
School  for  the  express  purpose  of  teaching  the 


THE  REFORM  A  TION  PERIOD.  165 


scholars  Greek.  This  was  in  1509.  Boys  to  the 
number  of  one  hundred  and  fifty  and  three,  the 
number  of  the  fish  in  the  second  miraculous  draught 
of  fishes,  were  to  be  taught  there  gratuitously. 
At  the  present  moment  six  colonial  Bishops  owe 
their  education  to  Dean  Colet's  munificence,  my- 
self among  the  number.  Erasmus  was  a  great 
friend  of  the  Dean,  and  took  great  interest  in  the 
school.  His  dialogue  " pietas  pnerilis"  is  sup- 
posed to  show  the  excellence  of  the  teaching  given 
at  that  particular  institution.  All  this  helped  on 
the  Reformation.  It  was  said  by  the  monks  that 
Erasmus  laid  the  egg  which  Luther  hatched. 
Certainly,  his  influence  and  teaching  in  England 
helped  on  the  Reformation  there  in  a  conservative 
and  healthy  manner  and  direction. 

The  learned  English  at  the  time  knew  what 
they  were  about  perfectly  well,  and  we  cannot 
think  that  they  were  left  without  guidance.  For 
though  we  may  and  must  acknowledge  that  in 
these  troublous  times,  several  leading  English  di- 
vines were  somewhat  rambling  in  their  theology, 
feeling  about  as  it  were  after  the  truth,  yet  in  the 
authoritative  formularies  of  the  Church,  there  is 
no  rambling,  no  error.  Some  years  ago,  one  who 
might  have  been  thought  sufficiently  learned  in 
liturgical  knowledge  to  have  hesitated  to  impute 
error  to  others,  said  that  the  translators  of  our 
Liturgy  were  mistaken  in  one  of  their  statements. 


1 66  THE  REFORM  A  TION  PERIOD. 

The  statement  which  Mr.  Seager  objected  to  is 
"  the  ancient  Fathers  divided  the  psalms  into  seven 
portions,  whereof  every  one  is  called  a  Nocturn." 
The  translators  were  supposed  to  have  misunder- 
stood a  lesson  in  the  Breviary  for  S.  James'  Day. 
The  Saint,  it  is  said,  " Psalterinm  quoque per  ferias 
distinxit,  et  unicuique  ferice  nocturnum  dedit."  He 
divided  the  psalter  for  the  days  of  the  week,  and 
appointed  a  Nocturn  to  each  day.  However, 
twenty  years  ago,  the  late  learned  librarian  of  the 
University  of  Cambridge,  England,  showed  me  a 
manuscript  of  the  thirteenth  century  (I  think).  It 
was  a  commentary  on  the  psalms  appointed  for 
each  day  of  the  week,  and  in  this  the  division  of 
psalms  for  each  day  is  called  a  Nocturn.  Thus  the 
psalms  for  Tuesday  are  called  the  psalms  of  the 
third  Nocturn.  The  translators  knew  what  they 
were  about,  for  they  were  familiar  from  constant 
use  with  details  which  we  have  to  acquire  feebly 
with  long  study.  Nor  did  they  make  any  statement 
or  any  change  without  laborious  investigation,  it 
was  not  without  good  reason  that  they  challenged 
a  condemnation  of  their  work  from  the  voice  of 
antiquity.  They  had  searched  the  ground,  and 
were  ready  for  the  attack.  Cranmer  alone  had  a 
thousand  folio  pages  of  manuscript,  quotations 
from  the  ancient  Fathers,  transcribed  by  his  own 
hand  in  support  of  his  views.  Archbishop  Parker 
had  this  copied  for  his  own  use,  and  this  copy  is 


THE  REFORM  A  TION  PERIOD. 


I67 


now  in  the  British  Museum.  Crannier  also  tran- 
scribed much  from  the  Scriptures,  Fathers  and 
Schoolmen  before  he  attempted  to  formulate  the 
Eleventh  Article  and  the  Homily  on  Salvation. 
This  collection  occupies  seventeen  pages  of  the 
octavo  edition  of  his  works,  and  this  on  the  single 
question  of  Justification.  He  could,  therefore, 
with  confidence,  write  in  the  'Homily,  "  Beside 
Hilary,  Basil  and  St.  Ambrose  before  rehearsed, 
we  read  the  same  in  Origen,  St.  Chrysostom,  St. 
Cyprian,  St.  Augustine,  Prosper,  CEcumenius, 
Photius,  Bernardus,  Anselm  and  many  other  au- 
thors, Greek  and  Latin."  But  Cranmer  was  not 
alone  of  this  mind,  as  may  be  seen  in  any  of  the 
recognized  formularies  and  documents  of  the 
Church.  The  Homilies  lay  down  over  and  over 
again  the  principles  on  which  Christian  doctrine 
and  practice  were  to  be  proved.  "  Ye  have  heard 
it  proved,  (i.)  by  God's  word,  (ii.)  the  doctors  of  the 
Church,  (iii.)  ecclesiastical  histories,  (iv.)  reason  and 
experience."  Such  is  the  universal  statement,  and 
the  Homilies  were  to  be  "a  pattern  and  boundary" 
for  all  preachers  and  teachers.  In  the  Homilies, 
there  are  nine  quotations  from  councils  of  the 
Church  and  two  hundred  and  thirty-nine  quota- 
tions from  the  Fathers.  The  four  quoted  most 
frequently  are  S.  Augustine,  fifty-nine  times;  S. 
Chrysostom,  twenty-six  times  ;  S.  Jerome,  twenty- 
two  times ;  S.  Ambrose,  fourteen.  In  Jewel's  Apol- 


THE  REFORM  A  T/O.V  PERIOD. 


ogy,  the  councils  are  quoted  thirty-two  times  while 
two  hundred  and  seventeen  citations  are  from  the 
Fathers.  Here  again  S.Augustine  is  the  favorite, 
and  heads  the  list  with  thirty-two  quotations. 
Then  Tertullian  comes  to  the  front  with  twenty- 
one  references,  and  S.  Chrysostom,  S.  Jerome  and  S. 
Ambrose  come  next  in  order.  This  is  but  a  sample. 
The  "general  index"  to  the  rather  useless  "  Pr.r- 
ker  Society"  books  tells  the  same  tale.  Wher- 
ever the  work  of  the  Reformers  of  the  Church  of 
England  is  tested,  the  same  principles  are  found  to 
exist.  The  Reformation  of  the  Church  of  England 
went  on  the  plan  of  a  passionate  appeal  to  Scrip- 
ture as  interpreted  by  the  ancient  Fathers.  "The 
primitive  Church,"  say  the  Homilies,  "  is  especially 
to  be  followed  as  most  incorrupt  and  pure  "  The 
oft-quoted  canon  of  1 57 1  maintains  the  principle, 
and  enforces  it  on  the  clergy.  "Imprimis,  preachers 
shall  take  heed  that  they  never  teach  anything  to 
be  religiously  held  and  believed  by  the  people,  ex- 
cept that  which  is  agreeable  to  the  doctrine  of  the 
Old  or  New  Testament,  and  what  from  that  very 
doctrine  the  Catholic  Fathers  and  ancient  Bishops 
have  gathered."  Bishop  Jewel  professed,  "We 
came  as  near  as  we  possibly  could  to  the  Church 
of  the  Apostles,  and  of  the  old  Catholic  Bishops 
and  Fathers;  and  have  directed  according  to 
their  customs  and  ordinances,  not  only  our  doc- 
trine, but  also  the  sacraments  and  the  form  of 


THE  REFORM  A  TION  PERIOD. 


l6g 


common  prayer."  "  I  prefer  the  antiquity  of  the 
primitive  Church,"  said  Bishop  Ridley,  "before 
the  novelty  of  the  Church  of  Rome." 

Herein  then  was  the  essential  difference  between 
the  Reformation  of  the  Church  of  England,  and 
the  Reformation  on  the  continent  of  Europe. 
The  Church  of  England  reformed  herself,  taking 
for  her  guide  Holy  Scripture  as  interpreted  by  the 
primitive  Church  ;  the  continental  reformers  rather 
accepted  the  principle  of  Scripture,  interpreted 
by  private  judgment.  Private  judgment  is  men- 
tioned only  once  in  the  formularies  of  the  Church 
of  England,  and  then  it  is  condemned.  The  Ar- 
ticles maintained  that  it  is  "  the  Church  that  has 
authority  in  controversies  of  faith " ;  and  con- 
demned those  that  "  through  their  private  judg- 
ment willingly  and  purposely  break  the  traditions 
and  ceremonies  of  the  Church."  But  then  the  con- 
tinuity and  identity  of  the  Church  of  England  re- 
mained intact ;  she  reformed  herself.  Her  Bishops 
remained  in  the  same  sees,  with  their  succession 
unbroken;  whereas  the  continental  reformers  were 
compelled  to  break  away  from  their  Bishops,  and 
inaugurate  a  plan  of  their  own. 

The  "  infamous  Blackburn,"  as  he  has  been 
called,  saw  this  clearly  when  (in  the  middle  of  the 
last  century)  he  wrote  that  the  Reformers  "  deter- 
mined the  one  (true)  sense  of  Scripture  to  be  the 
sense  of  the  primitive  Church,  that  is  to  say,  the 


170 


THE  RE  FORM  A  TION  PERIOD. 


sense  of  the  orthodox  fathers  for  a  certain  number 
of  centuries.  From  these  they  took  their  inter- 
pretations of  Scripture,  and  upon  these  they 
formed  their  rule  of  faith  and  doctrine."  As  this 
was  opposed  to  the  unbounded  liberty  of  private 
judgment,  which  Archdeacon  Blackburn  regarded 
as  the  essence  of  Protestantism,  he  thought  that 
the  Reformation  of  the  Church  of  England  was 
to  be  condemned.  This  testifies  to  the  fact  which 
meets  us  at  every  turn,  that  the  Church  of  Eng- 
land in  all  things  wills  to  be  guided  by  Scripture 
as  interpreted  by  the  tradition  of  the  primitive 
Church. 

Here  we  must  remember  the  perfect  indepen- 
dence of  the  Church  of  England.  Her  very  name 
shows  her  independence.  In  the  eighth  century 
Bede  speaks  of  the  Ecclesia  Anglorum.  In  the 
twelfth  century,  in  the  correspondence  of  S. 
Thomas  a  Becket,  we  have  both  Ecclesia  Anglorum 
and  Ecclesia  Anglicana ;  while  from  the  time  of  the 
Great  Charter  in  1215,  the  name  in  Latin,  Ecclesia 
Anglicana,  has  been  the  most  frequent,  though 
the  phrase  Angliae  Ecclesia  occurs  occasionally. 
She  always  had  her  own  laws ;  and  the  Canon 
law  of  the  continent  of  Europe  never  obtained  in 
England  except  so  far  as  the  Church  of  England 
adopted  and  incorporated  such  canons  as  were 
regarded  as  suitable.  This  is  so  much  the  case 
that  even  now  the  Canons  of  Trent  are  not  bind- 


THE  RE  FORM  A  TION  PERIOD.  1 7 1 


ing  even  on  the  Roman  obedience  in  England, 
because  they  have  never  been  promulged  and 
accepted  there.  The  most  striking  instance  of 
this  is  the  marriage  law.  The  law  of  the  Church 
of  England  has  always  been  that  Holy  Matrimony 
to  be  valid  must  be  "  in  facie  Ecclesice,  per  verba 
de  prcesenti,  per  presbyterum  sacris  ordmibus  con- 
stitututtt."  It  must  be  celebrated  openly  in  the 
Church  by  a  priest  in  holy  orders.  This,  the  con- 
tinuous law  of  the  Church  of  England,  was  also 
the  law  of  England  until  the  middle  of  this  cen- 
tury ;  but  it  was  not  the  law  of  the  continent  of 
Western  Europe.  There  mere  consent  before 
any  witnesses  constituted  valid  matrimony ;  it 
was  the  same  as  the  present  Scotch  law  which 
was  anciently  assimilated  to  that  of  France  rather 
than  that  of  England.  But  when,  about  the  end 
of  the  sixteenth  century  and  later,  the  Jesuits  and 
other  priests  who  had  been  trained  abroad  were 
sent  into  England  to  promote  a  schism,  they 
knew  nothing  of  the  old  law  of  the  English 
Church,  but  brought  with  them  the  Canon  law  of 
the  Continental  Church  before  it  was  altered  at 
Trent.  There  was  no  public  authority  in  England 
to  promulge  the  Tridentine  Canons  ;  these,  there- 
fore, were  not  of  force.  In  consequence  of  this 
the  law  of  marriage  accepted  at  this  day  amongst 
those  of  the  Roman  obedience  in  England  is  per- 
fectly different  from  the  old  law  of  the  Church  of 


172 


THE  REFORM  A  TIOX  PERIOD. 


England,  and  would  alone  proclaim  the  Roman 
schism  in  England  to  be  a  modern  intrusion. 

Knowing  this  peculiarity  of  the  Roman  position 
in  England,  I  had  a  curious  conversation  with  a 
Jesuit  priest  in  that  country  some  years  ago.  At 
that  time  all  Roman  Catholic  marriages  were  made 
valid  in  the  eye  of  the  law  by  the  presence  of  the 
Civil  Registrar,  and  my  friend  told  me  the  follow- 
ing story:  A  nobleman  was  to  be  married,  and 
there  was  to  be  pontifical  high  mass  in  the  noble- 
man's private  chapel.  In  the  middle  of  the  Creed, 
which  was  being  sung,  the  Registrar  came  to  the 
bridegroom  and  said,  "  My  lord,  I  do  not  know 
how  much  longer  this  is  going  on,  but  it  is  five 
minutes  of  twelve,  and  if  you  are  not  married 
before  twelve  the  marriage  will  be  illegal."  "  What 
shall  we  do?  "  was  the  question.  "  Just  step  into 
the  drawing-room  with  the  bride,  give  your  con- 
sent there  and  then  return."  This  was  done,  and 
after  the  civil  marriage  in  the  drawing-room  the 
couple  returned  into  the  chapel  and  the  marriage 
service,  which  had  been  going  on  during  their 
absence,  still  proceeded. 

I  at  once  saw  I  had  the  Jesuit  priest  on  the 
horns  of  a  dilemma.  So  I  said,  "  Which  of  those 
was  the  sacrament  of  marriage  ? "  He  said, 
"They  never  told  the  bishop."  "Never  mind 
that,"  was  my  answer,  "  which  ceremony  was  the 
sacrament  ?"    "  Of  course,"  he  replied,  as  he  was 


THE  REFORM  A  TION  PERIOD. 


173 


bound,  "  the  consent  before  the  Registrar.'- 
"  Then,"  said  I,  "  the  second  consent  was  an 
iteration  of  the  sacrament  and  sacrilege."  "  Ah, 
let  me  see,"  said  the  Jesuit,  "  before  the  Registrar 
they  withheld  their  interior  consent.  I  think  that 
will  do.*'  "  Then,"  was  the  reply,  "  the  marriage 
is  illegal  as  being  after  hours."  "  I  think,"  said 
the  other,  "  we  had  better  talk  no  more  about  it." 

This  peculiarity  of  the  Roman  Catholic  posi- 
tion in  England  is  not  generally  known ;  the 
peculiarity  of  their  law  about  marriage  accounts 
for  the  stringent  action  of  Cardinal  Manning  in 
preventing,  or  endeavoring  to  prevent,  mixed 
marriages  when  the  ceremony  was  often  per- 
formed first  in  an  English  Church. 

Having  thus  endeavored  to  exhibit  the  general 
principles  on  which  the  Church  of  England  re- 
formed herself,  it  will  be  useful  now  to  see  how 
these  principles  were  applied  in  detail  in  some 
cases.  Here  we  must  be  as  brief  as  is  consistent 
with  accuracy  so  as  not  to  exceed  the  limits  of  a 
lecture. 

We  must  always  remember  that  the  Church  of 
England  has  nothing  to  do  with  the  private 
motives  of  Henry  VIII.,  King  of  England.  His 
public  professions  were  excellent  at  all  times,  and 
the  Church  was  only  too  glad  of  the  opportunity 
afforded  her  to  reform  herself.  If  any  one  says 
that  this  king  was  not  a  moral  man,  the  retort  is 


i/"4 


THE  REFORM  A  TION  PERIOD. 


ready  that  he  was  a  saint  by  the  side  of  the  popes 
of  his  time.  The  heathen  conceits  of  Leda  and 
Europa,  which  are  to  be  seen  on  the  great  bronze 
gates  of  S.  Peter's  to  this  day,  are  testimonies  to 
the  classical  semi-heathenism  of  Leo  X.  Then 
the  Borgia  Pope  Alexander  VI.,  has  no  savory 
reputation.  But  it  may  well  be  said  that  these 
immoralities  have  not  influenced  for  ill  the  Roman 
Communion.  Still  less  have  the  peculiarities  of 
Henry  VIII.  to  do  with  the  Church  of  England, 
of  which  he  was  no  bishop.  With  respect  to  the 
position  of  the  Church,  in  the  matter  of  the 
Bishop  of  Rome,  there  was  little  difference 
between  us  and  the  true  Gallican  Church,  until 
Napoleon  the  First  conspired  with  the  pope  to 
destroy  the  Old  Gallican  Church  by  the  stroke  of 
a  pen,  and  erect  a  new  one  on  its  ruins. 

In  declining  to  submit  any  longer  to  the  Bishop 
of  Old  Rome,  the  Church  of  England  was  cer- 
tainly following  ancient  precedent.  As  early  as 
the  beginning  of  the  fifth  century,  the  Church  in 
Africa  was  troubled  by  the  meddlesome  interfer- 
ence of  the  Bishop  of  Rome,  who  claimed  to  hear 
and  decide  appeals  under  the  pretended  authority 
of  the  Council  of  Nicaea.  Zosimus,  Bishop  of 
Rome,  sent  legates  to  Carthage,  who  quoted  a 
canon  as  Nicene  which  was  not  to  be  found 
amongst  the  twenty  canons  in  the  text  brought 
back  from  Nicaea  by  Caecilianus,  Bishop  of  Car- 


THE  REFORM  A  T/O.V  PERIOD. 


175 


thage,  who  had  been  present  at  the  council.  The 
legates  of  Rome  naturally  claimed  that  their  copy 
was  correct  and  the  African  copy  was  defective. 
The  African  bishops  courteously  agreed  to  accept 
the  Roman  text  until  such  time  as  certified  copies 
could  be  secured  from  Constantinople,  Alexandria 
and  Antioch.  In  answer  to  their  request,  Atticus, 
Patriarch  of  Constantinople,  and  S.  Cyril,  Patri- 
arch of  Alexandria,  sent  certified  copies  which 
agreed  with  the  African,  and  disproved  the 
Roman  claim.  It  is  hard  to  suppose  that  a 
Christian  bishop  would  knowingly  and  wittingly 
falsify  the  code  of  Nicsa,  and  perchance  his  claim 
arose  from  ignorance.  It  has  been  suggested  that 
the  Sardican  canons  (which,  indeed,  were  quoted), 
were  written  without  any  break  after  the  Nicene 
canons,  and  that  thus  the  mistake  arose.  But 
the  illustrious  Archbishop  of  Paris,  Peter  de 
Marca,  in  the  middle  of  the  seventeenth  century, 
drily  remarks,  "  the  conjecture  might  be  held  to 
be  probable,  if  borne  out  by  the  evidence  of  any 
ancient  codex,  but  this  has  not  yet  been  discov- 
ered." He  thinks  that  Zosimus  cannot  be  ac- 
quitted of  wilful  falsification.  So  early  was  the 
arrogance  of  Rome  seeking  to  support  itself  on 
false  claims. 

Then  with  respect  to  one  succession  of  orders, 
Bishop  Jewel  claims  to  have  been  ordained  priest 
by  the  same  bishop  and  the  same  ordinal  as  his 


1 76  THE  REFORM  A  TION  PERIOD. 


opponent  Harding,  and  then  continues:  "I  am  a 
bishop,  and  that  by  the  free  and  canonical  election 
of  the  whole  chapter  of  Salisbury,  assembled 
solemnly  for  that  purpose.  Our  bishops  are  made 
in  form  and  order,  as  they  have  been  ever,  by  free 
election  of  the  chapter ;  by  consecration  of  the 
archbishop  and  other  three  bishops,  and  by  admis- 
sion of  the  prince.  Therefore,  we  neither  have 
bishops  without  Church  nor  Church  without  bish- 
ops." "  To  be  short  we  succeed  the  bishops  that 
have  been  before  our  days.  We  are  elected,  con- 
secrated, confirmed,  admitted  as  they  were." 
Here,  then,  comes  in  another  instance  of  the 
great  care  taken  to  adhere  to  precedent  of  anti- 
quity. The  confirmation  of  the  election  of  Arch- 
bishop Parker  was  carefully  framed  on  the  old 
form  used  in  the  confirmation  of  Archbishop 
Chichell,  in  A.D.  1414.  The  form  then  used  can 
not  be  traced  earlier.  "  Its  use  was  exceptional, 
having  been  resorted  to  at  a  time  when  the  Eng- 
lish Church  did  not  acknowledge  either  of  the 
rival  claimants  of  the  papacy.  The  tradition  of 
that  confirmation  was  only  a  century  old.  It  was 
of  the  providence  of  God  that  they  had  that  pre- 
cedent to  fall  back  upon.  But  the  selection  of 
this  one  precedent  shows  how  careful  Parker  and 
his  consecrators  were  to  follow  the  ancient  prece- 
dents." There  was  no  particular  of  carelessness  or 
haste  about  the  matter.    There  was  but  one  mat- 


THE  RE  FORMA  TION  PERIOD. 


1 77 


ter  overlooked,  but  it  was  of  no  spiritual  conse- 
quence. When  Bishop  Home,  of  Winchester, 
tendered  the  oath  of  supremacy  to  Bishop  Bon- 
ner (he  being  at  the  time  in  the  Marshalsea,  and 
consequently  in  the  diocese  of  Winchester), 
Bishop  Bonner  took  two  legal  exceptions  to 
Bishop  Home's  position.  Had  he  known  any 
more  valid  objection,  he  would  not  have  confined 
himself  to  legal  technicalities.  First,  Bishop  Home 
had  not  been  consecrated  by  an  ordinal  which  had 
statutable,  authority  ;  secondly,  Archbishop  Parker 
had  been  consecrated  by  four  bishops,  three  of 
whom  had  been  deprived,  and  the  fourth  deposed 
by  Act  of  Parliament.  The  ordinal  used  had 
been  deprived  of  the  authority  of  Parliament 
under  Philip  and  Mary,  but  the  act  could  not  give 
or  take  away  spiritual  validity  from  the  service. 
It  was  but  a  legal  quibble,  which  was  soon  set 
straight  by  an  Act  of  Parliament.  Of  the  conse- 
crators  of  Archbishop  Parker,  Coverdale  was 
spiritually  the  diocesan  of  Exeter,  though  another 
had  been  intruded  into  his  see ;  Hodgkin  was  a 
diocesan  suffragan,  the  other  two  were  "  vacant  " 
bishops  elect  to  sees  in  the  province.  But  then  of 
Pole's  seven  consecrators,  two  were  diocesan  bish- 
ops, three  were  intruders,  and  two  acting  diocesan. 
Those  who  wish  to  pursue  this  particular  branch 
of  the  subject  should  consult  the  accurate  and 
precise  little  work  of  my  friend  and  brother,  John 


1 78  THE  REFORM  A  TION  PERIOD. 


Walter  Lea,  on  "  The  Succession  of  Spiritual 
Jurisdiction."  He  gives  the  particulars  of  each 
see  during  the  whole  period  of  the  Reformation 
troubles.  It  was  most  providential  that  Cardinal 
Pole,  of  Canterbury,  died  within  twenty-four 
hours  of  Queen  Mary  ;  and  within  two  years  after 
the  accession  of  Elizabeth,  no  less  than  fifteen 
sees  were  vacated  by  death.  If  Elizabeth  did 
cause  some  Bishops  to  be  intruded  into  sees  not 
canonically  vacant,  her  sister  Mary  had  been  pre- 
viously equally  high-handed  and  had  intruded  a 
similar  number.  But  in  neither  case  would  this 
affect  the  validity  of  the  succession.  For  such 
bishops  would  consecrate  validly  to  the  Epis- 
copate, but  invalidly  to  the  particular  see. 

Mr.  Lea  writes  :  "Some  of  the  results  of  this  in- 
quiry were  unexpectedly  satisfactory.  I  was  not 
prepared  to  find  the  breaches  in  jurisdiction  so 
few  in  themselves,  so  temporary  in  their  con- 
sequences, and  so  evenly  divided  between  Rome 
and  England."  "  As  to  the  duration  of  the  Ref- 
ormation disturbance,  it  was  twenty-five  years  and 
less  than  one  month  ;  and  canonical  succession  in 
every  diocese  was  completely  re-established  by  the 
consecration  of  Scambler's  successor  on  February 
7th,  1 584-5."  "  On  the  whole  I  think  we  may  con- 
clude that  the  Reformation  dislocation  of  succes- 
sion [of  jurisdiction]  in  the  English  Church  has 
been  greatly  exaggerated  by  popular  traditions  and 


THE  REFORM  A  T10N  PERIOD.  1 79 


misconceptions.  All  traces,  however,  have  long 
since  disappeared." 

Let  us  now  turn  to  the  question  of  the  vernacu- 
lar service.  Several  times  have  I  heard  the  ques- 
tion asked  by  an  enthusiastic  ignoramus :  "  By 
what  right  were  the  services  translated  out  of 
Latin  into  English?"  The  answer  is  so  near  to 
hand  that  it  is  difficult  to  understand  how  the 
question  could  be  raised.  "  By  the  same  right 
that  they  were  translated  out  of  Greek  into  Latin." 
Greek  was  the  original  language  of  Christianity 
even  in  Rome  itself,  and  the  first  Christian  Latin 
appears  in  the  colony  of  Africa. 

Two  points  have  here  to  be  touched  upon : 
first,  the  adoption  of  one  use  throughout  the 
Church  of  England  and  next  the  translation  of 
that  use  into  the  vernacular. 

For  we  must  remember  that  there  were  several 
different  service  books  in  use  in  England,  and  each 
diocese  adopted  the  variation  which  was  most 
agreeable  to  the  Cathedral.  With  substantial 
identity,  these  presented  some  inconsiderable 
variations ;  but  they  were  all  of  the  English 
Church.  The  Roman  office  books  were  never 
used  in  England  until  the  Jesuits  came  in  after  the 
Reformation  to  create  a  schism.  The  first  step 
of  the  English  Bishops  was  to  mould  all  the  vari- 
ous uses  into  one.  Thus  the  original  preface  to 
the  one  Service  Book  expressed  it  :  "  Whereas 


1 80  THE  REFORM  A  TION  PERIOD. 


hitherto  there  hath  been  great  diversity  in  saying 
and  singing  in  Churches  within  this  realm  ;  some 
following  Salisbury  use,  some  Hereford  use,  some 
the  use  of  Bangor,  some  of  York,  some  of  Lincoln  ; 
now  from  henceforth  all  the  whole  realm  shall 
have  but  one  use."  This  use,  therefore,  on  the 
general  title-page  is  called,  "  the  use  of  the  Church 
of  England." 

It  is  somewhat  remarkable  that  almost  all  the 
manuscripts  of  the  old  service  books  of  the  Sarum 
use  date  from  about  A.D.  1420.  It  would  almost 
seem  as  if  there  were  some  move  at  that  time  to 
renovate  if  not  to  reform  the  services.  A  century 
later  in  15 16,  there  is  an  unmistakable  evidence  of 
a  steady  design  to  amend  the  existing  service 
books;  and  eighteen  years  later  in  1534,  the  issue 
of  printed  service  books  in  England,  "  suddenly 
ceased,  and  in  the  case  of  the  Missal  was  never 
resumed  up  to  the  first  Revision  of  the  offices  in 
1549."  Seven  years  later  again  by  a  regular  Act 
of  Convocation,  the  ancient  and  illustrious  use  of 
Sarum  was  extended  to  the  whole  province  of 
Canterbury.  This  was  on  March  3d,  1541,  and 
was  the  last  step  before  the  book  of  1549,  which 
was  made  obligatory  on  both  provinces. 

This  extension  of  one  Use  to  the  whole  of 
England  went  hand  in  hand  with  a  gradual  desire 
to  popularize  the  services  of  the  Church  and  make 
them  adapted  for  congregational  use.    There  is 


THE  REFORM  A  TION  PERIOD. 


181 


evidence  of  a  continual  tendency  to  have  such  ser- 
vices as  were  held  in  the  nave  amongst  the  people 
in  the  vernacular,  in  the  language  that  the  people 
could  understand.  Not  only  were  they  taught 
the  creed,  the  Lord's  Prayer  and  the  ten  com- 
mandments in  their  own  language,  but  from  early 
times  the  Bidding  the  Bedes  was  in  the  vernacular. 
About  twenty-five  years  ago  I  drew  attention  to  a 
very  interesting  service  in  English  preserved  in  a 
fine  Sarum  Breviary  on  a  spare  leaf  just  before 
the  Kalendar  which  is  in  the  middle  dividing  the 
Temporale  from  the  Sanctorale.  It  is  the  opening 
of  the  fifty-first  Psalm  with  an  Antiphon  to  be 
used  at  the  Sprinkling  of  Holy  Water.  This  was 
always  done  in  procession  amongst  the  people. 
The  manuscript  is  ascribed  by  experts  to  the 
middle  of  the  fifteenth  century  about  1450.  As 
it  is  set  to  music,  it  was  clearly  intended  for  public 
use  and  was  no  private  peculiarity.  It  forms  an 
important  link  in  the  chain  of  evidence  which 
shows  how  gradual  the  Reformation  was  in  Eng- 
land ;  and  for  how  long  a  period  there  was  a 
steady  determination  to  have  the  Scriptures  and 
the  Service  Books  in  English.  In  1534  and  again 
in  1536,  Convocation  petitioned  for  an  authorized 
translation  of  the  Bible,  and  the  Epistles  and 
Gospel  of  the  Communion  service  were  printed 
and  circulated  in  English.  Then  came  the  next 
step. 


1 82  THE  RE  FORM  A  TION  PERIOD. 


In  1544,  Henry  VIII.  started  for  France  at  the 
head  of  a  large  fleet,  and  he  was  anxious  to  gain 
friends  abroad  and  at  home.  To  this  end  he 
caused  what  has  been  called  the  "  King's  Book," 
the  title  of  which  was,  "  The  Necessary  Doctrine 
and  Erudition  for  any  Christian  Man,"  to  be  trans- 
lated into  Latin  for  circulation  abroad.  He  wished 
to  show  foreign  princes  that  he  and  his  realm  were 
perfectly  orthodox,  and  the  translation  is  very  free 
with  a  good  deal  of  new  matter  introduced.  This 
desire  probably  accounts  for  the  Latin  name,  "  Pia 
et  Cathohca  Xtiani  hominis  institutio."  On  the 
title-page  of  a  copy  in  the  Library  of  Salisbury 
Cathedral,  there  is  written  in  handwriting  of  the 
sixteenth  century,  "  Libellus  supplex  ad  Caesaream 
Majestatem  et  principes  electores  Germanise. "  A 
humble  pamphlet  addressed  to  His  Imperial  Maj- 
esty and  the  prince-electors  of  Germany.  This 
was  doubtless  the  intention  of  the  book,  though  it 
was  no  friend  of  Henry  that  added  the  supplex. 
One  thing  at  once  strikes  the  reader  of  this  book, 
there  is  one  passage  of  Greek  introduced.  Greek 
printing  was  very  rare  at  that  date ;  indeed  the 
scribe  held  his  own  in  Greek  against  the  printer 
for  a  long  time.  Just  as  the  early  printed  books 
have  the  initial  capitals  filled  in  by  hand,  so  we 
find  Latin  printed  books  with  gaps  for  the  Greek 
to  be  filled  in  by  hand.  This  Greek  quotation  is 
in  one  of  the  fresh  paragraphs  inserted  in  the 


THE  RE  FORM  A  TION  PERIOD. 


I S3 


translation,  and  it  is  from  S.  Chrysostom.  This 
would  imply  that  between  May  29,  1543  and 
February,  1544,  some  one  in  authority  had  been 
reading  S.  Chrysostom's  works. 

At  the  same  time  in  1 544  for  use  at  home,  there 
was  issued  what  we  now  call  the  Litany,  but  was 
then  called  also  "the  procession  in  English." 
Remark  it  is  a  procession  said  or  sung  among  the 
people  like  the  sprinkling  of  holy  water  just 
spoken  of;  the  Litany  is  here  called  "Common 
Prayer  of  Procession."  At  the  end  of  this  we 
find  the  Prayer  of  S.  Chrysostom  as  we  have  it 
now,  another  hint  that  S.  Chrysostom's  works 
were  being  studied.  About  this  time,  too,  we 
read  in  a  letter  from  Cranmer  to  the  king  that  the 
Archbishop  had  been  engaged  in  translating  other 
processions. 

Next  after  the  death  of  Henry  there  followed  in 
1548,  "the  Order  of  Communion  "  when  all  which 
was  addressed  to  the  people,  or  said  by  the  people, 
was  in  English,  and  the  rest  still  in  Latin  ;  and  the 
next  year  following  the  service  book  was  issued, 
which  is  known  to  us  under  the  title  of  the  first 
book  of  Edward  VI. 

As  we  should  expect  from  the  principles  which, 
as  we  have  seen,  actuated  the  Reformers  in  Eng- 
land, there  was  all  along  the  determination  to 
bring  the  Scriptures  in  English  before  the  people. 
About  the  same  time,  therefore,  the  Bible  and 


THE  REFORM  A  TION  PERIOD. 


Prayer  Book  were  translated.  The  public  reading 
of  the  Scriptures  was  so  arranged  that,  in  the 
daily  service,  which  was  now  popularized  that  the 
people  at  large  might  be  induced  to  attend,  all 
the  Old  Testament,  or  most  of  it,  should  be  read 
once  through  in  the  year,  and  the  New  Testament 
three  times  over.  But  here  again  antiquity  was 
followed  and  Isaiah  was  read  in  Advent  in  the 
Dominical  and  Ferial  cycle  of  lessons,  and  after 
that  Genesis  was  commenced.  It  was  the  aim  of 
the  English  Reformers  to  make  the  people 
acquainted  with  the  Scriptures.  In  a  very  won- 
derful way  they  have  succeeded.  For,  though  in 
my  own  neighborhood  where  I  am  now  resident, 
the  Scriptures  are  not  as  well  known  as  could  be 
wished,  yet  our  daily  familiar  language,  and 
almost  every  page,  or  even  column,  of  the  daily 
journals,  testify  to  the  prevalence  of  a  knowledge 
of  the  words  and  phrases  of  the  English  Bible. 

Yes,  the  English  Bible  is  a  priceless  gift  of  the 
English  Church  to  the  English-speaking  race.  It 
was  translated  by  the  English  Church  for  the 
English  people.  I  speak  not  of  the  modern  re- 
vised version,  which  is  in  no  sense  the  work  of  the 
English  Church.  I  mean  the  Bible  as  represented 
in  the  Prayer  Book  psalter,  and  that  which  is 
commonly  known  as  the  authorized  version.  All 
Englishs-peaking  Christians,  whether  they  own 
the  tender  authority  of  the  Church  or  not,  owe 


THE  REFORM  A  TION  PERIOD.  1 85 


her  this  vast  debt,  that  she  has  given  them  their 
English  Bible.  The  beauty  of  the  translation  may 
be  realized  if  any  one  compares  it  with  any  other 
translation.  To  give  one  example.  How  could 
we  bear  to  hear  read  as  a  lesson  in  Church  such  as 
the  following,  from  the  Douay  version — the 
mother  of  Sisera,  "  looked  out  of  a  window  and 
howled.    She  spoke  from  the  dining-room." 

There  is  one  widely  prevalent  mistake  in  Eng- 
lish which  has  arisen  from  a  mistaken  under- 
standing of  a  phrase  in  the  Communion  Office, 
which  is  a  testimony  to  its  influence.  It  is,  unfor- 
tunately, a  very  common  vulgarism  of  the  present 
day,  to  say  "  I  will  try  and  do  this  or  that,"  in- 
stead of  "  I  will  try  to  doit."  This  can  only  come 
from  misunderstanding  the  exhortation  to  com- 
municants "  to  try  and  examine  themselves." 
Try  in  the  sense  of  test  is  now  rare,  and  some 
clearly  have  thought  the  exhortation  meant  that 
people  were  to  endeavor  and  examine  themselves. 

Here  then  we  pass  on  to  another  point  in  which 
reform  was  eagerly  demanded  ;  and  no  wonder.  It 
was  no  less  than  the  restoration  of  the  Cup  to  the 
laity  and  such  of  the  clergy  as  were  present  but 
not  actually  celebrating.  The  Sacrament  had  been 
mutilated  and  truncated,  and  there  was  a  loud 
demand  for  the  restoration  of  a  complete  Sacra- 
ment. The  feeling  of  the  laity  was  so  adverse  to 
this  denial  of  the  cup  that  in  England  and  in  many 


THE  RE  FORM  A  TION  PERIOD. 


places  on  the  continent  after  the  laymen  had  com- 
municated in  the  one  species,  an  unconsecrated 
cup  was  ministered  -to  them  to  assist  (it  was  said) 
in  the  act  of  deglutition  ;  but  it  was  really  to  con- 
tent the  people.  True,  the  priests  were  told  to 
inform  the  laity  that  the  wine  was  unconsecrated; 
true,  they  knelt  to  receive  the  consecrated  element 
and  stood  to  receive  the  wine.  But  the  mass  of 
the  unlearned  most  probably  were  left  in  igno- 
rance; while  the  learned  resented  the  mutilation. 
The  formal  denial  of  the  Cup  to  all  but  the  cele- 
brant only  dates  from  the  Council  of  Constance  in 
141 5.  though  the  custom  had  arisen  in  many 
places  several  centuries  before,  and  it  had  rightly 
and  justly  given  rise  to  great  searchings  of  heart. 

There  is  in  my  possession  a  manuscript  volume 
of  sermons  on  the  Sacrament  of  the  Holy  Euchar- 
ist. They  were  written  by  the  Dominicans  of 
Cologne  in  A.D.  1268,  and  bear  internal  evidence 
of  the  work  of  S.  Thomas  Aquinas  who  was  lec- 
turing at  Cologne  about  that  time.  In  these  ser- 
mons three  reasons  are  given  for  withholding  the 
chalice  from  the  laity.  The  first  is  that  so  pre- 
cious a  gift  should  have  a  chosen  vessel,  such  as 
the  priest,  to  receive  it.  The  second,  to  avoid  the 
irreverence  from  the  multitudes  that  receive  at  the 
great  feasts.  The  third,  to  forestall  a  remedy  for 
error  in  faith  lest  the  rude  multitude  should  think 
that  Christ  is  not  present  entire  under  either 


THE  REFORM  A  TION  PERIOD.  1 87 


species.  The  Scripture  proof  is  curious:  under 
the  second  reason  it  is  argued  that  when  the  Lord 
administered  to  the  Apostles  at  the  Last  Supper, 
as  there  were  but  few  of  them,  He  gave  them  the 
Cup  ;  whereas,  when  He  fed  the  multitude  in  the 
wilderness,  He  gave  them  bread  alone.  The  next 
sermon  says  that  the  Blood  of  Christ  is  received  by 
the  faithful  in  three  ways,  first,  sacramaitally  and 
this  by  the  priest  alone  ;  secondly ,  intellectually by 
the  people  under  the  species  of  bread.  The  Scrip- 
ture proof  of  this  is  Job  xxxix.,  30:  "  The  young 
of  the  eagle  suck  up  blood."  There  seems  to  be  a 
confusion  here  between  the  eagle  and  the  fable  of 
the  pelican,  for  the  argument  runs,  "  The  young 
of  the  eagle,  that  is,  the  children  of  the  Church, 
drink  the  Blood,  not  from  the  Chalice,  but  directly 
from  the  very  Body  of  Christ."  In  further  illus- 
tration or  proof,  two  more  passages  are  quoted. 
Canticles,  i.,  14:  "My  beloved  is  to  me  like  a 
cluster  of  grapes";  and  Ps.  i.,  16:  "With  honey 
out  of  the  strong  rock  should  I  have  satisfied 
thee."  The  third  way  of  receiving  is  spiritually, 
by  pious  meditation  on  the  death  of  Christ.  We 
cannot  wonder  that  men  were  not  satisfied  with 
such  arguments  as  these.  There  was  the  institu- 
tion of  Christ  Himself.  He  would  not  have  insti- 
tuted the  Sacrament  under  two  kinds,  if  one  alone 
were  sufficient.  He  would  not  have  laid  such 
stress  upon  their  all  drinking,  if  one  only  were  to 


1 88 


THE  REFORM  A  T/O.V  PERIOD. 


receive.  The  argument  of  concomitance  and  all 
such  were  swept  away  as  making  the  Word  of 
God  of  none  effect  by  mere  human  tradition; 
and,  thank  God,  the  Chalice  is  restored  to  the 
laity. 

There  is,  it  maybe,  a  hint  of  the  time  when  the 
Cup  was  withheld  in  the  use  of  the  plural  in  the 
XXVth  Article.  "  The  sacraments  were  not  or- 
dained of  Christ  to  be  gazed  upon  or  carried 
about."  The  two  elements  were  spoken  of  as  two 
sacraments.  In  the  first  Prayer  Book  of  Edward 
VI.  we  read,  '•  as  the  priest  ministereth  the  Sac- 
rament of  the  Body  so  shall  he  minister  the  Sac- 
rament of  the  Blood."  Some  thirty  or  more  pas- 
sages of  a  similar  character  may  be  found  in  the 
official  documents  or  private  writings  of  the 
period.  A  similar  use  seems  to  be  suggested  by 
S.  Isidore,  of  Seville,  at  the  beginning  of  the 
seventh  century,  who  says  "  the  sacraments  are 
Baptism  and  Chrism,  the  Body  and  Blood  of 
Christ."  Just  as  in  the  West,  there  is  a  divorce 
between  Baptism  and  Confirmation,  so  there  was 
also  a  divorce  and  mutilation  in  the  sacrament  of 
the  Eucharist.  Then  again,  as  when  Confirmation 
was  separated  by  an  interval  of  time  from  Bap- 
tism, there  was  a  symptom  of  it  left  in  the  use  of 
oil,  and  with  us  in  the  sign  of  the  cross  which  is 
really  part  of  Confirmation  ;  so,  also  to  content 
the  people,  there  was  the  cup  of  unconsecrated 


THE  REFORM  A  TION  PERIOD.  1 89 


wine  given,  a  symptom  and  relic  of  the  time  when 
the  laity  were  communicated  in  the  Chalice. 

Here  again  is  seen  the  eager  desire  to  return  to 
the  practice  of  the  primitive  Church  ;  that  all 
things  in  this  (as  the  Homily  saith),  "  be  in  such 
wise  done  and  ministered,  as  our  Lord  and 
Saviour  did,  and  commanded  to  be  done  ;  as  His 
holy  Apostles  used  it ;  and  the  good  fathers  in  the 
primitive  Church  frequented  it."  The  Church  in 
the  United  States  may  be  felicitated  on  having 
restored  to  their  service  a  beauty,  which  we  of  the 
Canadian  Church  have  lost  in  common  with  our 
common  mother,  the  Church  of  England. 

The  next  point  to  which  I  would  refer  is  the 
marriage  of  the  clergy.  No  one  can  doubt  that 
the  proposition  of  the  article  is  absolutely  true, 
that  the  clergy  are  not  forbidden  jure  divino  to 
enter  upon  or  to  remain  in  the  married  state.  This 
has  ever  been  regarded  as  a  matter  of  pure  dis- 
cipline varying  with  the  different  ages,  and  the 
necessities  of  the  Church  ;  varying  also  with  the 
public  opinion  of  Christian  society.  In  the 
eleventh  century  in  the  Church  at  Milan,  the 
archbishop  and  all  the  priests  and  deacons  were 
married;  and  Milan  was  proverbial  for  the  excel- 
lence of  the  clergy.  In  England  there  was  never 
a  vow  of  celibacy  taken  in  the  ordination  service, 
as  was  the  custom  on  the  continent ;  and  though 
in  the  twelfth  century  canons  were  passed  forbid- 


1 9o 


THE  REFORM  A  TION  rERIOD. 


ding  the  marriage  of  the  clergy,  we  learn  that 
they  had  no  universal  effect,  for  the  clergy  mar- 
ried as  before.  Indeed,  more  than  one  instance  is 
known  of  a  somewhat  exaggerated  protest  against 
such  canons,  when  the  priest  had  more  than  one 
wife.  One  such,  the  Vicar  of  Mundeham,  in 
A.D.  1225,  exhibited  a  dispensation  from  the  pope 
allowing  him  to  retain  two  wives.  It  was  not  at 
all  uncommon  in  England  and  Wales  for  priests 
to  be  married.  Indeed,  it  is  said  that  the  wife  of 
Archbishop  Warham,  the  immediate  predecessor  of 
Cranmer,  was  recognized  by  his  friends  in  society. 
We  need  look  no  further  than  to  a  long  list  of 
surnames,  English  and  Scotch,  to  see  that  if  there 
were  canons  against  clerical  marriage,  they  were 
disregarded.  In  English  we  have  Pope,  Clerk  in  all 
its  spellings,  Bishop,  Dean,  Cantor,  Cancellor,  Can- 
non, Parsons,  Chaplin,  Priest,  Arcedeckne,  Deacon, 
Vicars,  and  others.  In  Scotch,  Mactaggart,  son  of 
a  priest ;  Mac  Nab,  abbot's  son,  all  tell  the  same 
tale.  In  refusing  to  condemn  the  marriage  of  the 
clergy,  there  was  a  return  to  primitive  antiquity, 
most  desirable,  and  most  loudly  demanded  on 
all  sides. 

To  return  now,  in  conclusion,  from  particular 
details  to  general  principles.  The  position  taken 
up  by  the  Church  of  England  may  be  learned 
from  the  fact  that  there  is  no  large  treatise  of  posi- 
tive doctrine  formulated  by  her;  the  Thirty-nine 


THE  REFORM  A  TION  PERIOD.  1 9 1 


Articles  are  mainly  negative.  The  difference  be- 
tween the  first  eight  of  the  Articles  and  the  rest 
will  be  at  once  remarked.  Where  the  faith  of  the 
Church  is  repeated  there  are  few  negatives;  where 
the  Articles  begin  to  deal  with  errors  current  at 
the  time,  the  negations  abound.  This  would  show 
that  the  Church  took  the  teaching  as  she  found 
it,  but  warned  her  preachers  against  certain  errors 
which  were  prevalent  at  the  time.  The  Creeds 
are  "  the  Confession  of  Faith  "  of  the  Church  of 
England.  The  creeds  are  what  "  the  Catholic 
Fathers  and  ancient  Bishops  have  gathered  "  from 
the  Scripture.  Of  these,  therefore,  Archbishop 
Parker  and  the  bishops  in  1559,  said,  "Such  as  do 
not  believe  these  must  not  be  reckoned  amongst 
true  Catholics."  Qui  istis  non  crediderint,  inter 
veros  Catholicos  non  sunt  recipiendi.  It  may  be 
true  that  "  The  Bible,  and  the  Bible  only,  is  the 
religion  of  Protestants."  No  such  statement  was 
ever  made  by  the  English  Church.  Whichever 
way  we  turn,  the  same  principles  are  manifest 
from  the  first.  In  A.D.  1533,  in  an  Act  of  Parlia- 
ment, we  read,  "  that  nothing  in  the  Act  shall  be 
interpreted  as  if  the  king  and  his  subjects  intended 
to  decline  or  vary  from  the  congregation  of 
Christ's  Church  in  anything  concerning  the  very 
Articles  of  the  Catholic  Faith  of  Christendom." 
Nine  years  later,  in  another  Act,  it  is  declared  ex- 
pedient "  to  ordain  and  establish  a  certain  form  of 


1 92 


THE  REFORM  A  TION  PERIOD. 


pure  and  sincere  teaching,  agreeable  to  God's 
word  and  the  true  doctrine  of  the  Catholic  and 
Apostolical  Church."  The  same  is  seen  under 
Edward  VI.,  whose  council  speak  of  the  book  of 
the  "  ministration  of  the  sacraments  well  and  sin- 
cerely set  forth,  according  to  the  Scripture  and 
the  use  of  the  primitive  Church."  From  first  to 
last  the  same  passionate  appeal  is  seen.  In  the 
thirtieth  canon  of  1603,  it  is  declared  that  it  was 
not  "  the  purpose  of  the  Church  of  England  to 
forsake  and  reject  the  Churches  of  Italy,  France, 
Spain,  Germany,  or  any  such  like  Churches  in  all 
things  which  they  held  and  practised  "  ;  but  the 
right  is  claimed  to  reform  "in  those  particular 
points  wherein  they  were  fallen  both  from  them- 
selves in  their  ancient  integrity,  and  from  the 
Apostolic  Churches  which  were  their  first  found- 
ers." This  was  the  aim  which  the  Reformers  set 
before  them.  They  worked  hard  to  achieve  their 
object ;  and,  considering  their  opportunities,  their 
accuracy  is  remarkable.  To  give  one  instance. 
There  is  a  quotation  from  S.  Vincent  of  Lerins 
which  is  very  often  cited  now  as  a  test  of  Catho- 
licity. It  is  quoted  in  this  form:  "quod  semper, 
quod  ubique,  quod  ab  omnibus."  It  is  said  that  it  is 
first  quoted  in  this  order  by  Newman  in  the  Oxford 
Tracts.  I  have  not  verified  this,  but,  certainly,  in 
the  last  fifty  years  it  has  been  commonly  quoted  in 
this  order.    Now  S.  Vincent's  work  is  not  easily 


THE  REFORM  A  TIOiV  PERIOD. 


193 


found,  and,  therefore,  inaccuracy  may  be  pardoned 
in  second-hand  citation.  But  S.  Vincent  reckoned 
universality  of  place  in  the  foremost  rank,  and 
wrote  "  quod  ubique,  quod  semper,  quod  ab  om- 
nibus "  ;  and  Cranmer  cites  him  accurately:  "  Vin. 
centius  Lirinensis  teacheth  plainly  that  the  canon 
of  the  Bible  is  perfect  and  sufficient  of  itseif  for 
the  truth  of  the  Catholic  faith  ;  and  that  the  whole 
Church  cannot  make  one  article  of  the  faith, 
although  it  may  be  taken  as  a  necessary  witness, 
for  the  receiving  and  establishing  of  the  same, 
with  these  three  conditions,  that  the  thing  which 
we  would  establish  thereby  hath  been  believed  in 
all  places,  ever,  and  of  all  men." 

Matters  of  doctrine  cannot  well  be  dealt  with 
here  in  the  small  compass  of  a  lecture,  therefore, 
in  detail  they  have  not  been  referred  to ;  but  the 
same  principles  held  in  respect  to  these  as  to  mat- 
ters of  practice  and  discipline. 

In  the  great  upheaval  of  those  troublous  times, 
there  may  be  many  things  which  we  cannot  now 
in  calm  dispassionate  criticism  wholly  approve. 
But  we  were  not  living  then  and  cannot  be  impar- 
tial judges  because  we  cannot  always  understand 
what  was  at  stake.  Looking  on  at  a  distance  we 
may  discern  the  dust  of  the  struggle,  but  we  can- 
not always  distinguish  the  exact  point  over  which 
the  battle  is  fought.  For  example,  at  first  sight, 
it  is  difficult  to  see  why  Hooper  was  compelled  to 


1 94  THE  RE  FORM  A  TION  PERIOD. 


"wear  a  square  cap  albeit  his  head  was  round." 
But  the  distinction  between  the  laity  and  the  clergy 
was  at  stake.  At  the  Universities  and  so  else- 
where the  square  cap  marked  the  theological  and 
clerical  faculties  ;  the  round  cap  was  worn  by  the 
lay  faculties,  medicine,  law  and  the  like.  It  was 
the  same  fight  as  over  the  name  priest.  But  this 
contest  was  more  fully  developed  later.  There  is 
much  evidence  that  in  the  earlier  years  of  Eliza- 
beth's reign,  the  changes  interpreted  by  custom 
and  previous  usage  were  comparatively  small. 
We  cannot  think  that  so  few  ecclesiastics  would 
have  abandoned  their  preferments  if  it  were  other- 
wise ;  for  there  is  no  reason  for  thinking  that  by 
far  the  greater  mass  of  the  lower  clergy  were  un- 
conscientious self-seekers. 

The  position  may  fairly  be  represented  by  the 
picture  as  seen  in  Shakespeare's  plays.  He  prob- 
ably represented  the  current  religion  of  the  great 
mass  of  the  people.  The  result  is  that  some  be- 
lieve him  to  have  been  of  the  purely  Roman  obedi- 
ence ;  some  claim  him  as  an  Anglican  of  our  type  ; 
others  think  he  cared  not  for  distinction  of 
religious  belief.  He  represents  the  old  Catholic 
religion  modified  and  reformed  from  excesses  and 
superstitions  ;  or,  as  has  been  well  said,  "  Chris- 
tianity alike  Scriptural,  Catholic  and  Reformed." 

The  changes  were  gradual,  and  caused  but  little 
friction  in  many  parts.    At  Salisbury,  at  the  com- 


THE  RE  FORM  A  T10N  PERIOD. 


195 


mencement  of  the  sixteenth  century,  Bishop 
Langton  made  a  statute  that  all  prebendaries  on 
their  installation  should  pay  for  a  new  cope  for  the 
cathedral.  In  consequence  of  this  ordinance,  in 
1 591,  the  great  Richard  Hooker  paid  £3  6s.  8d. 
for  his  cope  on  his  installation,  though  at  that 
time  the  money  probably  went  toward  the  repair 
of  the  fabric,  which  the  Italian  dean  had  left  in  so 
ruinous  a  condition.  At  the  same  cathedral,  the 
Morrowmas  Chapel  becomes  the  Chapel  of  Morn- 
ing Prayer,  and  the  Morrowmas  rents  become  the 
Morning  Prayer  rents. 

The  Homilies  represent  also  a  transitional  state 
of  opinions.  The  Apocrypha  is  "  the  infallible 
and  undeniable  Word  of  God."  Orders  and  mar- 
riage are  sacraments,  though  not  such  sacraments 
as  Baptism  and  the  Communion.  All  show  the 
same — it  was  a  reformation  of  the  old,  and  not  a 
revolution  introducing  something  entirely  new.  It 
is  no  wonder  that  there  was  no  breach  in  Com- 
munion with  the  Romanists  for  more  than  ten 
years  after  Elizabeth  came  to  the  throne.  It  is  no 
wonder  that  we  hear  of  the  offer  of  the  Pope  to 
recognize  the  existing  state  of  things  if  only  his 
authority  were  recognized  in  England.  But  this 
could  not  be.  The  people  had  never  liked  the 
foreign  influence,  and  would  not  tolerate  its  fresh 
introduction. 

It  is  interesting  to  read  the  testimony  of  the 


196  THE  REFORM  A  TION  PERIOD. 


great  traveller,  Sir  Edwyn  Sandys,  in  1599,  to  tne 
view  of  the  more  sober-minded  foreigners  about 
our  Reformation.  He  writes:  "In  their  more 
sober  moods  sundry  of  them  will  acknowledge 
[England]  to  have  been  the  only  nation  that  took 
the  right  way  of  justifiable  reformation,  in  com- 
parison of  others  who  have  run  headlong  rather  to 
a  tumultuary  innovation  (so  they  conceive  it): 
whereas  that  alternative  which  hath  been  in  Eng- 
land was  brought  in  with  peaceable  and  orderly 
proceeding  by  general  consent  of  the  Prince  and 
the  whole  Realm  representatively  assembled  in 
solemn  parliament,  a  great  part  of  their  own  clergy 
according  and  conforming  themselves  unto  it  ;  no 
Luther,  no  Calvin,  the  square  of  their  faith  ;  what 
public  discussion  and  long  deliberation  did  per- 
suade them  to  be  faulty,  that  taken  away ;  the 
succession  of  bishops  and  vocation  of  ministers 
continued  ;  the  dignity  and  state  of  the  clergy 
preserved  ;  the  honour  and  solemnity  of  the  service 
of  God  not  abated  ;  the  more  ancient  usages  of 
the  Church,  not  cancelled;  in  sum  no  humour  of 
affecting  contrariety,  but  a  charitable  endeavour 
rather  of  conformity  with  the  Church  of  Rome,  in 
whatsoever  they  thought  not  gainsaying  to  the 
express  law  of  God  which  is  the  only  approvable 
way  in  all  meet  reformations." 

Such,  indeed,  is  the  view  of  candid  Romanists 
now  as>  ever ;  and  we  may  well  close  with  this 
expression  of  opinion. 


THE  REFORM  A  TION  PERIOD. 


1 97 


But  the  Lord  is  King,  be  the  people  never  so 
impatient :  He  sitteth  between  the  cherubims, 
be  the  earth  never  so  unquiet.  The  work  is 
God's — there  must  be  some  great  future  in  store 
for  us.  Just  as  of  old,  the  Hebrew  Church  was 
cradled  in  the  Holy  Land,  shut  in  on  all  sides  from 
much  intercourse  with  foreigners  and  then  trained 
and  taught,  until  in  the  fulness  of  time  the  Jews 
were  driven  into  all  parts  of  the  world  taking  with 
them  the  Old  Testament  Scriptures  and  the 
knowledge  of  God  ;  even  so  with  the  English 
Church.  Isolated  within  the  four  seas  she  has 
been  trained  for  some  great  work  for  God,  until 
she  sees  her  children  in  every  part  of  the  world 
carrying  the  English  Bible  and  the  knowledge  of 
the  teaching  of  the  English  Church :  witness  the 
assembly  at  Lambeth  last  year  cf  the  145  bishops 
from  every  part  of  the  world. 

Surely  the  providential  character  of  the  English 
Church  is  not  for  nothing.  Surely  as  she  seems 
on  the  one  hand  to  have  somewhat  in  common 
with  the  various  Protestant  bodies  who  love  the 
Lord  Jesus  Christ  in  sincerity,  and  on  the  other 
to  hold  on  to  the  Greek  and  Roman  Communions, 
so  we  may  hope  that  in  our  Communion  a  means 
of  reunion  of  Christendom  may  be  discovered. 

All  honor  to  the  Church  here  in  the  States  for 
the  move  in  advancement  of  this  which  was  made 
at  the  last  General  Convention.    Let  us  be  thank- 


THE  REFORM  A  T/O.V  PERIOD. 


ful  that  the  Lambeth  Conference  was  able  to  en- 
dorse that  movement.  And  while  we  hope  that 
the  time  may  come  when  "  the  envy  of  Ephraim 
shall  depart,  and  the  adversaries  of  Judah  shall  be 
cut  off  :  Ephraim  shall  not  envy  Judah,  and  Judah 
shall  not  vex  Ephraim ";  let  us  end  with  the 
prayer  of  the  man  of  blameless  life  and  great 
learning — Matthew  Parker — Archbishop  of  Can- 
terbury : 

"  The  Lord  defend  His  Church  :  govern 
it  with  His  Holy  Spirit  and  bless  the  same 

WITH  ALL  PROSPEROUS  FELICITY.  AMEN." 

Adveniat  regnum  Tuum,  Domine;  Jiat  voluntas 
Tua. 


Gbe  puritan  IReaction. 


LECTURE  V. 


THE  REV.  THOS.  F.  GAILOR.  S.T.B., 

Professor  of  Ecclesiastical   History,    University  of  the  South, 
Sewanee,  Term. 

THE  PURITAN  REACTION. 

An  eminent  scholar,*  a  Unitarian,  in  the  Hibbert 
Lectures  for  1883,  has  remarked  that  "to  enumer- 
ate the  English  among  the  Reformed  Churches 
which  own  a  Genevan  origin  ...  is  a  pro- 
cedure conspicuously  unfaithful  to  historical  fact. 
Lutheran,  Calvinistic,  perhaps  even  Zwinglian 
lines  of  influence  upon  the  English  Reformation 
may  be  traced  without  difficulty  ;  but  there  was  a 
native  element  stronger  than  any  of  these,  which 
at  once  assimilated  them  and  gave  its  own  char- 
acter to  the  result.  .  .  .  The  Reformation  in 
England  followed  no  precedents  and  was  obedi- 
ent only  to  its  own  law  of  development." 

This  may  be  taken  as  the  mature  judgment  of 
history. 

What  that  "  native  element  "  would  have  ac- 
complished in  the  way  of  ecclesiastical  reform, 

*Prof  Beard. 

201 


202  THE  PURITAN  REACTION. 


without  any  of  these  "lines of  influence,"  it  were 
useless  to  conjecture.  Certain  it  is  that  this  for- 
eign interference  in  the  conduct  of  the  affairs 
of  the  Church  of  England  is  largely,  if  not  en- 
tirely responsible  for  the  pain  and  misery  and 
contention  of  her  subsequent  history,  and,  there, 
fore,  for  the  present  divisions  of  Reformed  Chris- 
tendom. That  very  theory  of  absolute  uniform- 
ity in  outward  observances  which  provoked  dis- 
sension, was  imported  from  Geneva.  The  first 
Prayer  Book  of  Edward  VI.,  which  expresses  the 
mind  of  the  English  Church,  is  far  less  restrict- 
ive than  the  second  Prayer  Book,  which  was  put 
forth  at  the  instance  of  the  continental  reformers. 
And  the  germ  of  the  theory  of  clerical  subscrip- 
tion, that  bane  of  later  times,  was  introduced  by 
a  letter  from  John  Calvin  to  Somerset,  in  1548,* 
in  which  the  great  master  of  Puritanism  says : 
"  There  be  two  kinds  of  men  who  seditiously  stir 
themselves  against  you  and  the  realm — those  who 
walk  disorderly  in  the  name  of  the  Gospel,  and 
those  who  are  sunk  in  the  old  superstitions.  Both 
these  and  those  deserve  to  feel  the  sword  of  the 
Prince."  "  Let  there  be  a  form  of  doctrine  re- 
ceived by  all  and  taught  by  all.  Let  all  your 
bishops  and  parish  priests  be  bound  by  oath  to 
maintain  that  ;  and  admit  none  to  office  in  the 


*  Dixon,  II.  525. 


THE  PURITAN  REACTION. 


203 


Church  who  will  not  swear."  And  yet  down  to 
the  reign  of  Elizabeth,  the  "  native  element  "  in 
England  left  the  penalty  of  recusancy  to  spiritual 
censures. 

Foreign  associations  and  internal  dissensions 
began  together.  It  was  the  reign  of  Edward  VI., 
"  the  seven  years'  rule  of  an  infant — the  protector- 
ate of  Somerset  and  the  domination  of  Northum- 
berland " — "  a  chaos,"  it  has  been  called,  "  in  the 
semblance  of  order" — which  witnessed  the  first 
considerable  immigration  of  continental  reform- 
ers into  England  and  the  first  organized  separa- 
tion from  her  ancient  Church.  In  May,  1549,  we 
find  Peter  Martyr,  the  Italian  exile  and  zealous 
Calvinist,  thundering  disaffection  in  the  Univer- 
sity of  Oxford ;  and  the  more  learned  Bucer 
counselling  moderation  at  Cambridge,  in  the  face 
of  bitter  ridicule  from  his  fellow-countrymen.  In 
1550,  the  numerous  foreigners  of  every  shade  of 
religious  belief  had  to  be  permitted  to  set  up 
their  own  place  of  worship  in  the  metropolis,  in 
order  that,  by  the  protection  and  limitation  of  the 
law,  they  might  be  prevented  from  falling  into  the 
extremes  of  fanaticism.*  Over  them  was  placed 
John  Laski,  the  Polish  Bishop,  the  fiery  revolu- 
tionist of  East  Friesland,  who  gladly  imported  his 
own  congregation  and  his  theological  controversies 
into  the  hospitable  island.  The  same  year  saw  the 

*  Dixon,  III.  233  and  208. 


204 


THE  PURITAN  REACTION. 


rise  of  small  communities  of  separatists  in  the 
eastern  and  southern,  and  more  exposed  parts  of 
the  kingdom  whose  teachings  were  an  incongruous 
mixture  of  Calvinism  and  Pelagianism  with  Ana- 
baptist license.  These  were  the  first  Non-con- 
formists. John  Knox,  the  Scotch  Priest,  has  the 
credit  of  sounding  the  first  note  of  rebellion  against 
the  rubric  requiring  kneeling  at  the  Holy  Com- 
munion. He  had  come  to  England  in  1551,  fresh 
from  the  galleys,  where  his  alliance  with  the  mur- 
derers of  Beatoun  had  sent  him,  and  was  self- 
confident,  fierce  and  ruthless  in  the  exercise  of  his 
genius  for  the  utter  overthrow  of  the  ancient  order. 
The  name  of  John  Hooper,  Bishop  of  Gloucester, 
sometimes  called  the  father  of  English  Non-con- 
formity, deserves  more  than  a  passing  notice.  As 
early  as  1539  he  had  fled  to  Switzerland  and  there 
under  the  influence  of  Henry  Bullinger  he  had 
become  an  enthusiastic  convert  to  the  Zwinglian 
doctrines.  On  his  return  to  England  in  1549  he 
was  almost  immediately  nominated  to  the  Bishop- 
ric of  Gloucester,  in  spite  of  considerable  opposition 
on  account  of  his  revolutionary  tendencies ;  but 
when  he  came  to  be  consecrated,  absolutely  refused 
to  wear  the  Episcopal  vestments  prescribed  in  the 
Ordinal  or  to  subscribe  to  Cranmer's  articles  of  re- 
ligion. His  main  argument  against  the  vestments 
is  illustrative  of  the  mental  attitude  of  his  class. 
Vestments,  he  said,  were  used  by  the  Aaronic 


THE  PURITAN  REACTION. 


205 


Priesthood  because  the  truth  of  their  Priesthood, 
i.  c,  Christ,  had  not  yet  come.  "  Christ  hung  naked 
upon  the  cross,"  and  "  since  His  sacrifice  the  truth 
no  longer  needs  veil  or  shadow."  *  Hooper  at  first 
preferred  to  go  to  prison  rather  then  wear  the 
vestments,  but  soon  afterwards  relented  and  Avas 
consecrated.  Strange  to  say  he  lived  to  become  a 
model  of  Episcopal  intolerance.  We  find  him  in 
1552  ruling  his  diocese  with  a  strong  hand,  enforc- 
ing clerical  subscription  without  mercy,  determined 
in  requiring  uniformity  of  practice  even  beyond 
the  Prayer  Book,  especially  when  it  was  in  the 
direction  of  his  own  opinions.  It  may  be  that  the 
prospect  of  so  many  dangerous  errors  convinced 
him  of  the  necessity  of  strict  law ;  or  perhaps  he 
began  to  believe,  with  so  many  other  men  who 
have  been  called  to  bear  the  responsibility  of  high 
office,  that  even  a  tyrannical  control  is  better  than 
unlimited  license  for  the  welfare  of  religion  and 
government. 

But  there  was  no  spirit  in  Edward's  reign  en- 
dowed with  sufficient  authority  and  courage  to 
check  the  prevailing  tendency  to  disunion.  The 
King  was  the  perpetual  target  of  unwearied  preach- 
ers. Cranmer  groaned  in  the  weak  struggle  be- 
tween the  contending  parties.  The  King's  sanc- 
tion of  the  revised  Prayer  Book  seemed  to  be  the 


*  Dixon,  III.  216  n. 


2o6  THE  PURITAN  REACTION. 


beginning  of  the  end,  when  the  death  of  Edward 
and  the  accession  of  Mary  drove  the  most  advanced 
reformers  into  a  five  years'  exile  on  the  continent, 
where  they  had  leisure,  under  the  influence  of 
Geneva,  to  nurse  their  hatred  against  Rome,  and 
to  organize  a  determined  opposition  to  the  wise 
and  moderate  position  heretofore  occupied  by  the 
English  Church.  In  the  year  1555  English  con- 
gregations were  established  at  Wesel,  in  the 
dominions  of  the  Duke  of  Cleves,  at  Arrow  in 
Switzerland,  Embden,  Zurich  and  Strasburg  and 
Frankfort-on-the-Main.  Among  them  were  many 
who  afterwards  became  prominent  in  the  Church, 
as  Edmund  Grindal,  Sandys,  Home  and  Jewell. 
Of  these  congregations  Fuller  says  *  "  Embden  was 
the  richest  for  substance,  Wesel  the  shortest  for 
continuance,  Arrow  the  slenderest  for  number; 
Strasburg  of  the  most  quiet  temper.  Zurich  had 
the  greatest  scholars,  and  Frankfort  the  largest 
privileges."  Fellowship  in  suffering  was  not  suffi- 
cient to  unite  the  exiles.  A  fierce  and  unseemly 
strife  about  the  use  of  the  Prayer  Book  arose  in 
Frankfort,  in  which  Whittingham,  Knox  and  Coxe 
were  the  chief  contestants.  An  apologetic  account 
of  it,  written  probably  by  Whittingham,  then  Dean 
of  Durham,  and  published  in  1 5/5,-f  has  come 
down  to  us,  containing  Knox's  scornful  and  unfair 
description  of  the  Book  of  Common  Prayer,  and 


*  VIII.,  406. 


t  Reprinted,  1846. 


THE  PURITAN  REACTION.  2O7 


Calvin's  famous  judgment  on  the  "  Book  of  Eng- 
land "  wherein  he  decides  that  "  there  are  many 
tolerably  foolish  things  in  the  Liturgy,"  and  ex- 
presses his  astonishment  at  "  those  men  which  so 
greatly  delite  in  the  leavings  of  Popish  dregges." 
Knox  was  banished  from  the  city  on  account  of 
his  book  entitled  "  An  Admonition  to  Christians," 
in  which  he  compared  the  German  Emperor  to 
Nero.  The  book  was  brought  to  the  notice  of  the 
magistrates  by  Knox's  opponents,  and  they  re- 
luctantly admitted  it  to  be  treason  and  gave  the 
victory  to  the  ceremonial  party.  It  is  interesting 
to  note  that  in  all  these  contentions  about  the 
surplice  and  responsive  worship  Bishop  Hooper's 
case  was  constantly  referred  to.  The  troubles  at 
Frankfort  mark  the  real  beginning  of  Non-con- 
formity. Hardly  a  man  returned  to  England  who 
was  not  determined  on  further  reformation  on 
Genevan  lines.  Many  of  the  exiles,  smarting  under 
their  injuries,  actually  burned  with  the  desire  to 
abolish  the  last  remnant  of  connection  with  the 
old  order.  To  them  Lutheranism  was  not  only  a 
base  compromise,  but  a  gross  hypocrisy.  The 
Pope  was  the  visible  anti-christ  and  child  of  Hell. 

The  reign  of  Elizabeth  is  in  many  respects  the 
most'  important  as  well  as  the  most  difficult  to 
understand  in  English  history.  .For  at  least  thirty 
years  Church  and  State  together  rocked  and  trem- 
bled between  contending  factions ;  and  whatever 


208  THE  PURITAN  REACTION. 


faults  of  character  or  of  policy  may  justly  be 
charged  against  the  Queen,  it  is  to  her  immortal 
honor  that  she  had  the  courage  and  the  ability  to 
achieve  triumphant  success  in  the  face  of  almost 
unequalled  difficulties.  It  is  not  accurate  to  attrib- 
ute every  thing  to  her.  She  was  Henry's  daughter, 
but  she  cannot  be  said,  like  him,  to  fill  the  whole 
canvas.  She  was  intelligent  enough  to  divine 
what  the  mass  of  her  people  wanted,  and  cour- 
ageous enough  to  insist  upon  it.  More  than  onge 
she  yielded  her  own  will  to  that  of  parliament. 
More  than  once  she  found  it  necessary  to  modify 
her  orders  about  religion.  Had  her  conscience 
and  her  piety  been  equal  to  her  intellectual  grasp, 
she  would  have  treated  her  Archbishops  and  their 
convictions  with  more  consideration,  and  saved 
her  successors  many  trials.  As  it  was,  she  came 
to  the  throne  in  November,  1558,  and  at  once 
adopted,  with  the  advice  of  her  ablest  ministers, 
that  conservative  attitude  in  religion  which  we  have 
come  to  honor  as  Anglo-Catholic.  To  this  she  was 
intellectually  loyal  to  the  very  end,  although  she 
permitted  her  greatest  court  favorite  to  torment 
the  Archbishop  by  open  encouragement  of  both 
Puritan  and  Roman  dissentients.  There  was  prac- 
tically no  opposition  to  her  conservative  policy. 
As  Mr.  Gladstone  showed  last  year,*  the  indefi- 


*  Nineteenth  Century,  July,  1888. 


THE  PURITAN  REACTION.  2og 


nite  resolutions  of  the  lower  house  of  Convocation 
amounted  to  nothing.  Mary's  reign  had  cured 
England  of  Popery,  and  when  subscription  to  the 
new  order  was  demanded,  only  192  out  of  more  than 
9,000  clergy  refused  ;  and  of  these,  only  eighty  were 
rectors  of  churches.*  As  Mr.  Green  says,  at  least 
two-thirds  of  her  people  were  with  her,  among  them 
the  older  and  wealthier  of  the  gentry  of  the  king- 
dom, and  no  marked  repugnance  to  the  new  worship 
was  shown  by  the  people  at  large.  It  took  foreign 
influence,  from  Rome  on  the  one  side  and  Geneva 
on  the  other,  to  stir  up- the  strife  during  the  sub- 
sequent years  of  her  reign,  which  occupies  so  much 
of  the  space  of  ordinary  histories,  that  one  almost 
wonders  when  he  reads  the  one-sided  account  of 
innumerable  grievances,  whether  there  were  any 
adherents  of  the  established  Church  at  all.  Yet, 
the  acts  of  this  reign  mark  the  practical  conclusion 
of  that  readjustment  of  the  doctrinal  and  liturgical 
system  of  the  Church  which  we  call  the  Reformation. 
The  strong  and  clear  assertion  and  maintenance  of 
the  Church's  historical  continuity,  were  agreeable 
to  the  nation,  and  were  destined  to  survive.  The 
miserable  Nag's  Head  fable  is  now  universally  dis- 
credited, f  The  insertion  of  the  Ornaments  Rubric ; 
the  rejection  of  the  title  "  Supreme  Head";  the 
limitation  of  the  test  of  heresy  to  Holy  Scripture, 

*Strype.  Annals.  I.  106  ;  Heylin  II.  295. 
fCf.  Hibbert  Lectures,  1883. 


210 


THE  PURITAN  REACTION. 


and  the  first  four  general  councils ;  the  public 
declaration  of  the  venerable  antiquity  and  inde- 
pendence of  the  English  Church — these  are  facts 
with  which  we  are  all  familiar. 

The  return  of  the  exiles  in  1559,  marks  the 
beginning  of  Puritanism,  although  that  name  does 
not  appear  until  about  five  years  afterwards,*  and 
then  has  no  invariable  signification.  There  were 
men  in  Elizabeth's  reign,  called  Puritans  on  account 
of  their  strict  lives,  who  were  loyal  Churchmen, 
but  the  effort  to  shift  the  name  was  not  success- 
ful. The  later  Puritanism  was  a  thing  of  gradual 
growth,  and  there  were  always  various  shades  of 
opinion  included  in  the  designation.  There  were 
doubtless  some  quiet  souls  who  conformed  to  the 
established  usages  of  the  Church,  and  who  would 
have  been  better  pleased  if  certain  ceremonies  had 
been  omitted.  Others  refused  to  conform  to  the 
wearing  of  the  surplice,  kneeling  at  the  Holy 
Communion,  and  using  the  sign  of  the  cross  in 
Baptism,  but  did  not  attack  the  ecclesiastical  gov- 
ernment. And  finally,  the  true  Puritans,  led  by 
Cartwright,  fought  for  the  abolition  of  the  Church 
of  England,  and  the  substitution  of  what  came  to 
be  known  as  Presbyterianism,  without  thought  of 
toleration  in  any  direction. 

Calvin  naturally  undertook  to  give  directions  as 

*  Fuller,  IX.  474. 


THE  PURITAN  REACTION. 


21  I 


to  the  proper  method  of  reform  in  England,  but 
his  letter  was  disregarded.*  The  more  prominent 
of  the  exiles  began,  on  their  return,  an  ineffectual 
movement  to  do  away  with  the  compulsory  use  of 
the  surplice  and  academic  habit.  Some  of  them 
became  Bishops,  and  all  of  them  manifest  in  their 
letters  a  great  horror  of  Lutherans,  Anabaptists, 
Arians,  and  other  heretics  (not  Calvinistic),  and 
this  very  dread  of  heretics  evidently  chilled  their 
ardor  for  changes  when  they  realized  the  possible 
outcome  of  the  Puritan  movement.  In  1567,  we 
find  in  the  Zurich  letters,  two  of  these  bishops 
writing  to  Bullinger  and  Gualter,  in  great  disgust 
at  the  crudeness  and  violence  of  the  Puritan  fac- 
tion. Nine  years  afterwards,  in  a  letter  to  Gualter, 
they  thanked  God  for  the  enforced  silence  of  those 
"contentious,  vainglorious,  mischievous  men,  who 
with  ungovernable  zeal  for  discord,  led  the  people 
into  a  madness  of  error,  called  purity."f 

It  was  well  for  the  Church  that  a  man  like 
Matthew  Parker  was  Archbishop  of  Canterbury. 
He  has  been  rightly  called  "  the  great  conserva- 
tive spirit  of  the  English  Reformation."  His  ripe 
learning,  especially  in  ecclesiastical  history  and 
antiquities,  made  him  a  primitive  and  Catholic 
Churchman,  whose  influence  upon  Elizabeth  in  her 
earlier  years  may  in  some  measure  account  for  her 


*  Ep.,  p.  133,  Heylin. 


t  I.  177. 


212  THE  PURITAN  REACTION. 


own  predilections.  His  zeal  for  learning  and  his 
preservation  of  manuscripts  have  won  for  him  an 
honorable  name  among  all  historians ;  and  his  wis- 
dom and  firmness  in  dealing  with  the  two  fanati- 
cal extremes  he  was  compelled  to  cope  with,  gained 
for  him  enemies,  some  of  whom  rebelled  against 
his  authority,  and  confessed  after  his  death  that  he 
was  "  a  godly  man  with  a  zeal  for  true  religion." 
His  visitation  in  1564  revealed  so  much  disorder 
and  irregularity  in  the  performance  of  public  wor- 
ship— and  the  Queen  herself  had  accidentally  wit- 
nessed such  shameful  sacrilege — that  by  her  order 
he  consulted  with  the  Bishops  of  the  ecclesiastical 
commission  and  proceeded  to  enforce  the  law. 
While  Neale,  the  Puritan  historian,  regards  the 
"  Popish  vestments  "  as  the  original  sole  ground 
of  dispute,  there  was  evidently  a  determination  to 
increase  the  demand.  Humphreys  and  Sampson 
in  1566  wrote*  to  their  advisers  in  Zurich  and 
Geneva  complaining  of  the  cap  and  surplice  ;  the 
use  of  music  and  organs  ;  sponsors  and  the  cross 
in  Baptism  ;  kneeling  at  the  sacrament  and  the 
use  of  unleavened  bread,  besides  the  removal  of 
the  explanatory  rubric  at  the  end  of  the  commun- 
ion service.  Bullinger's  advice  to  them  was 
learned  and  moderate,  but  Beza  was  fierce  and 
sweeping.  The  new-made  Superintendents  in 
Scotland  finally  expressed  their  opinion  in  a  letter 


*  I.  164. 


THE  PURITAN  REACTION. 


213 


"  breathing,"  as  Neale  says,  "  an  excellent  spirit," 
in  which  they  say  "  if  surplice,  corner-cap  and  tip- 
pet have  been  badges  of  idolatry,  what  have 
preachers  to  do  with  the  dregs  of  the  Roman 
beast."  *  An  argument  quite  convincing  to  men 
who  said  that  according  to  Jerome  "  gold  that  was 
ordered  for  use  in  the  Jewish  Temple  could  not  be 
used  for  ornament  in  the  Christian  Church,  and  so 
much  less  can  copes  brought  in  by  Papists  be  used 
in  Christian  worship." 

The  Puritan  leaders  were  vigilant,  aggres- 
sive and  determined,  and  they  lost  no  oppor- 
tunity for  the  propagation  of  their  opinions,  and 
open  ridicule  of  the  law.  The  Archbishop  re- 
sorted to  severer  measures.  The  more  active  and 
turbulent  were  deprived,  and  as  Puritanism  was 
not  so  much  a  popular  as  a  clerical  party,  this 
step  threatened  serious  injury  to  their  cause. 
They  resorted,  as  Neale  says,  to  that  door  of  en- 
trance to  the  ministry  which  was  providentially 
left  open  to  them.f  For  by  bull  of  Alexander 
VI.  the  University  of  Cambridge  was  authorized 
to  license  twelve  preachers  each  year  indepen- 
dently of  the  Bishops,  whose  authority  it  was  ever 
the  Papal  policy  to  depreciate ;  and  now  this 
privilege  the  Head  of  the  University  made  use  of 
for  the  relief  of  the  Puritans,  not  without  a  protest 
from  the  Archbishop,  and  the  scorn  of  some  who 


t  Ibid,  I.  101. 


214  THE  PURITAN  REACTION. 


despised  this  alliance  between  "  their  Herod  and 
their  Pilate."  The  year  closed  with  a  flood  of 
pamphlets  and  sermons,  and  in  midsummer, 
1566,  some  of  the  deprived  ministers  finally 
separated  from  the  English  Church,  and  set  up  a 
new  worship  with  the  Genevan  service-book,  and 
without  the  "  idolatrous  gear  of  the  Papists." 
Four  years  afterward  the  adherents  of  the  Pope 
also  formed  separate  congregations  in  consequence 
of  the  bull  of  Pius  V.,  excommunicating  the 
Queen  and  absolving  her  subjects  from  their 
allegiance.  The  rest  of  Parker's  life  was  a  strug- 
gle to  preserve  the  order  and  existence  of  the 
Church  in  the  midst  of  various  sects,  which  took 
courage  from  these  two  beginnings  of  organized 
dissent  and  logically  asserted  their  equal  right  to 
live.  It  is  curious  to  read  the  plea  of  the  Puritan 
historian*  for  individual  liberty  in  the  interpreta- 
tion of  Scripture  along  with  his  fierce  and  con- 
temptuous description  of  Quietists,  Brownists 
and  Anabaptists.  They  were  perilous  and  trying 
times  for  Parker  and  his  coadjutors.  The  Bishops 
were  urged  in  some  cases  against  their  better  judg- 
ment to  adopt  extreme  measures,  and  in  official 
documents  were  accused  of  lukewarmnessf  and 
neglect  of  their  spiritual  duties,  while  at  the  very 
time  they  knew  that  the  Non-conformists  were 


*  Neale,  I.  151.  t  Card  well's  Annals,  I.  385. 


THE  PURITAN  REACTION.  21$ 


secretly  encouraged  by  the  unscrupulous  Leicester, 
and  other  powerful  members  of  the  royal  council. 
In  1573  Parker  warned  the  court  that  the  end  of 
this  movement  was  the  overthrow  of  civil  govern- 
ment, but  it  was  not  until  1592  that  the  Privy 
Council  had  courage  to  declare  with -the  Bishops, 
that  for  the  Church  to  attempt  to  satisfy  the 
demands  of  every  sect  that  arose,  would  be  to  put 
a  premium  on  disputations  and  disunion.  Parlia- 
ment was  beseigedwith  bills  and  petitions  for  fur- 
ther reforms  in  the  direction  of  the  Genevan  dis- 
cipline. The  petitioners  drew  up  no  less  than 
three  revised  and  expurgated  Prayer  Books,  one 
after  another,*  and  the  more  they  purified  the  less 
satisfied  they  seemed  to  be  with  it.  The  godly 
zeal  ran  into  fanaticism,  and  fanaticism  rapidly  be- 
came crime.  Puritan  preachers  strove  to  awe  the 
multitude  by  the  display  of  miraculous  power.f 
and  devils  were  cast  out  of  some  poor  creatures, 
who  afterwards  confessed  that  they  had  duped  the 
crowd.  Mr.  Hatton,  a  member  of  the  Council  and 
afterward  Lord  Chancellor,  was  finally  singled  out 
for  assassination  by  a  Puritan  zealot,  who  said  he 
was  "  moved  by  the  Spirit  of  God  to  kill  him  as 
an  enemy  of  God's  Word,  and  a  maintainer  of 
Papistry."  Parker  died  in  1575.  He  had  left  his 
mark  for  good.    No  historian  questions  his  fitness 


*  Strype's  Whitg.  II.  340. 


t  Fuller.  III.  78. 


2l6 


THE  PURITAN  REACTION. 


in  moral  character  and  intellectual  ability  for  his 
high  office,  but  some  have  condemned  him  for  his 
efforts  to  enforce  obedience  to  the  law.  His  own 
letters  are  the  best  evidence  of  his  moderation,  his 
desire  for  peace,  his  humility,  his  deep  distress 
at  the  opposition  and  discouragement  met  with  in 
the  performance  of  what  he  knew  to  be  his  duty. 
It  was  not  natural  that  the  Puritans  should  love 
the  man  who  had  effectually  opposed  them.  In 
the  next  century  when  they  came  into  power  they 
tore  the  Archbishop's  body  from  its  grave, 
sold  the  lead  of  the  coffin,  and  buried  the  remains 
in  a  dung-hill.  Edmund  Grindal  succeeded  to  the 
primacy.  He  had  been  an  exile  in  Mary's  reign, 
and  was  known  to  favor  the  more  moderate  Puri- 
tans. His  one  year  of  office  is  only  memorable  for 
his  encouragement  of  a  Puritan  practice  of  pub- 
lic disputation  among  the  clergy  and  laity  called 
"  Prophesyings,"  which  bred  mischief  and  strife 
throughout  the  country.  He  had  the  courage  to 
resent  the  Queen's  arbitrary  interference  and  was 
suspended  for  contumacy,  although  he  was  after- 
wards restored  and  died  in  possession  of  his  see  in 
1583.  His  successor,  John  Whitgift  was  a  man  of 
different  mould,  a  Churchman  after  the  type  of 
Parker,  and  his  vigorous  administration  was  des- 
tined to  bring  about  a  new  order  of  things  in 
quieter  and  less  tumultuous  times.  Whitgift  was 
a  man  of  learning,  keenly  alive  to  the  importance 


THE  PURITAN  REACTION. 


217 


of  the  questions  of  the  hour,  and  he  entered  upon 
the  discharge  of  his  duties  with  decision  of  charac- 
ter and  manliness  of  conviction.*  His  boldness 
and  courage  in  the  defence  of  the  Church  rallied 
round  him  many  dispirited  Churchmen,  and  opened 
the  eyes  of  all  to  the  insidious  and  volcanic  agen- 
cies by  which  they  were  surrounded.  Hitherto 
Churchmen  had  been  cautious,  conservative  and 
defensive  in  their  arguments.  The  boldness  and 
aggressiveness  had  been  largely  with  the  Puritans. 
And  it  was  true  then,  as  it  is  now,  that  the  side 
which  was  thrown  on  the  defensive,  which  dared 
not  to  assert  itself,  was  losing  ground.  The  re- 
markable revival  of  the  English  Church  towards 
the  close  of  the  century  was  due  under  God  to  the 
confidence  and  vigor  with  which  Whitgift  and  his 
colleagues,  casting  off  the  yoke  of  the  modern  re- 
formers, and  planting  themselves  upon  the  early 
Church,  attacked  and  exposed  the  positions  of 
their  opponents.  There  was  indeed  an  aspect  of 
severity  in  the  firmness  with  which  the  law  was 
enforced.  The  Court  of  High  Commission  was 
freely  used.  Clerical  subscription  to  the  Prayer 
Book  and  the  articles  was  insisted  on.  Prophesy- 
ings  were  put  down.  Irregularities  and  flagrant 
violation  of  the  rubrics  were  conscientiously  pun- 
ished, and  the  government  of  the  Church  was  as- 

*  Hardwick  Hist,  of  Ref.,  p.  237. 


218 


THE  PURITAN  REACTION. 


serted  independently  of  the  patronage  of  the  Swiss 
authorities,  as  being  of  Scriptural  and  divine  au- 
thority. The  younger  men  in  the  Church  began 
to  realize  that  here  was  something  worth  fighting 
for  :  that  the  Church  of  England  not  only  had  a 
right  to  exist,  but  the  very  best  right  to  exist- 
that  she  was  not  simply  to  be  tolerated  by  the 
modern  founders  of  the  only  true  religion,  but 
that  she  had  her  own  ancient  title-deed  in  the 
Scriptures  themselves  and  the  Christian  history  of 
fifteen  centuries.  This  saved  the  English  Church 
from  the  Puritans'  "  Holy  Discipline."  This  asser- 
tion of  her  historical  continuity,  of  her  lawful  in- 
heritance from  the  ancient  Church  became  the 
rallying  ground  of  earnest  men,  and  saved  her 
from  complete  destruction  at  the  most  critical 
period  in  her  history. 

The  advance  of  Puritanism  in  influence  and 
numbers  during  the  first  twenty-five  years  of  Eliz- 
abeth's reign,  may  be  easily  accounted  for  if  we 
remember  the  condition  of  the  times.  Europe 
was  a  seething  sea  of  discord.  That  cold  and 
brutal  inquisitor,  the  Duke  of  Alva,  was  just  be- 
ginning, with  his  "  council  of  blood,"  the  reign  of 
terror  in  the  Netherlands  which  led  to  the 
heroic  struggle  and  assassination  of  William  of 
Orange  in  1584.  The  civil  wars  in  France  had 
reached  their  climax  when  Catherine  de  Medici  and 
the  Guises,  not  without  the  Pope's  approval,  had 


THE  PURITAN  REACTION. 


2I9 


horrified  Europe  with  the  massacre  of  St,  Barthol- 
omew in  1572.  Spain,  suspecting  England's  inter- 
ference in  the  affairs  of  Holland,  was  encouraging 
treason  in  England  and  Ireland,  and  was  making 
preparations  for  an  irresistible  and  overwhelming 
invasion.  It  is  impossible  for  us  to  realize  the 
conflicting  doubts  and  fears  of  Englishmen  in  the 
presence  of  so  many  dangers.  The  Queen,  ex- 
communicated, deposed,  declared  to  be  a  usurper, 
and  her  subjects  incited  to  rebellion  by  one  who 
had  been  but  a  few  years  before  the  spiritual  head 
of  Christendom,  and  who  had  now  the  richest  and 
most  powerful  king  in  Europe  pledged  by  re- 
ligion and  by  personal  interest  to  execute  his 
orders  ;  Ireland  on  the  west  in  a  state  of  utter 
lawlessness  and  misrule;  Scotland  on  the  north 
boiling  with  civil  and  religious  discord  ;  a  rebel- 
lion of  the  Papal  party  in  the  North  of  England 
under  one  of  the  most  powerful  of  the  nobles  ;  and 
Mary  of  Scotland,  with  all  her  pitiful  history,  the 
heir  to  the  crown,  a  Roman  Catholic,  leagued 
with  Philip  of  Spain  for  the  overthrow  of  the 
government,  and  conducting  her  intrigues  with 
more  or  less  voluntary  treason  under  the  very 
shadow  of  the  throne.  These  were  the  times 
when  the  world  was  divided  by  the  sword  of  ex- 
termination into  Papalists  and  anti-Papalists ; 
when  Churchmen  thanked  God  even  for  Calvin's 
form  of  Protestantism  ;  when  the  Church  of  Eng- 


220  THE  PURITAN  REACTION. 


land  was  compelled  to  recognize  the  Continental 
Churches  of  every  type  in  some  way,  as  sisters  in 
distress,  and  gladly  sent  of  her  money  and  sym- 
pathy to  the  aid  of  the  Genevan  reformers,  even 
when  they  had  denounced  her  government  and 
ceremonies.  Perplexed  by  the  terrors  of  the  time, 
men,  even  like  Parker,  faltered  and  hesitated  in 
asserting  the  Church's  claims ;  and  the  leaders  of 
the  Puritans,  taking  courage  from  that  hesitation, 
roused  to  a  very  ferocity  of  zeal  against  Popery, 
became  more  and  more  rampant  in  their  demands 
for  further  changes.  The  Jesuits  took  advantage 
of  this  internal  dissension,  and  sent  their  emissa- 
ries to  play  the  part  of  Puritans.  In  1569,  a  paper 
was  found  on  an  arrested  Jesuit,  in  which  three 
men,  Hollingham,  Coleman,  and  Benson,  are  men- 
tioned as  being  employed  "  to  sow  faction  among 
the  heretics,"  and  these  very  men  are  unsuspect- 
ingly described  by  Fuller  and  Heylin  as  violent 
Puritans.* 

Thomas  Cartwright  is  called  by  Neale  the 
"  Father  of  the  Puritans."  His  public  career 
began  at  Cambridge,  where  he  was  Margaret  Pro- 
fessor of  Divinity  in  1572,  soon  after  the  publica- 
tion of  the  famous  "  Admonition  to  Parliament," 
in  which,  among  denunciations  of  the  Praver 
Book  and  Prelacy,  a  brand-new  Church  is  recom- 
mended, whose  holy  discipline  should  copy  the 

*  Curteis,  B.  L.,  p.  63  n. 


THE  PURITAN  REACTION. 


221 


Presbyterian  models  extant  in  Scotland  and  Gen- 
eva.* Cartwright  defended  the  Admonition  in  a 
controversy  with  Whitgift,  which  extended  over  a 
period  of  about  four  years,  and  in  which  he  estab- 
lished his  reputation  for  unparalleled  self-confidence 
and  insolent  fanaticism.  Mr.  Green  says,f  that  "  his 
bigotry  was  that  of  a  mediaeval  inquisitor."  To 
him,  the  rule  of  Bishops  was  begotten  of  the 
devil ;  but  the  rule  of  Presbyters  was  established 
by  the  Word  of  God.  This  was  a  new  departure. 
For,  according  to  Neale,  the  moderate  Puritans 
in  1 571  would  have  been  satisfied  with  mild  con- 
cessions. They  would  use  the  Prayer  Book,  pro- 
vided that  they  did  not  kneel  at  the  Holy 
Communion  ;  that  there  were  no  organs  nor  sing- 
ing ;  that  no  one  was  allowed  to  walk  abroad,  or 
sit  idly  in  the  streets  during  service  time  ;  that  min- 
isters examined  into  the  private  lives  of  communi- 
cants; that  children  were  instructed  in  Calvin's 
catechism — and  other  matters  of  this  sort.J  But 
Cartwright  was  bent  on  revolution.  The  language 
of  the  "  Admonition "  was,  "  The  Bishops  are 
a  remnant  of  Anti-Christ's  brood,  which  do  battle 
to  Christ  and  His  Church,  and  I  protest  before  the 
eternal  God  I  take  them  so."  The  ceremonies  one 
and  all  were  the  intolerable  marks  of  the  Roman 
beast.  The  Calvinistic  or  Presbyterian  scheme  of 
government  was  exclusively,  absolutely,  divinely 
*  Hardwick,  p.  236.  t  p.  468.  fl„  117. 


222  THE  PURITAN  REACTION. 


true,  and  the  ministers  so  ordained  were  not  only 
the  arbiters  of  religious  doctrine  and  discipline, 
but  the  guardians  of  public  morals.  The  State 
must  be  subject  to  the  Church,  and  that  the  Calvin- 
istic  model.  The  penalty  of  all  heresy  was  death. 
"  I  deny,"  wrote  Cartwright  in  1573,  "  that  upon 
repentance  there  ought  to  follow  any  pardon  of 
death.  Heretics  ought  to  be  put  to  death  now. 
If  this  be  bloody  and  extreme,  I  am  contented  to 
be  so  counted  with  the  Holy  Ghost.'  *  But  Cart- 
wright's  utterances  were  mild  compared  with  the 
"Martin  Marprelate "  tracts,  which  began  to  ap- 
pear early  in  1588.  These  documents  are  marvels 
of  vituperation  and  scurrility,  even  for  that  age. 
It  would  be  painful  to  quote  the  language.  The 
Puritan  historian  describes  themf  as  "  bitter,  rude, 
and  unbecoming,"  and  regrets  that  "controversy 
about  serious  things  should  run  such  dregs." 

Thus  Presbyterian  Puritanism  reached  its  high 
water  mark  in  1590,  and  as  soon  as  its  ultimate 
aims  became  generally  recognized,  its  influence 
began  to  wane.  Several  causes  contributed  to 
bring  about  this  change.  First,  the  aspect 
of  the  political  world  was  far  more  encouraging 
and  England  was  no  longer  disturbed  by  internal 
discord,  or  the  threat  of  foreign  invasion.  The 
civil  wars  in  France  had  ended  with  the  accession 
of  a  Protestant  king,  who  conformed,  from  mo- 

*  Green,  469.        t  I.  189. 


THE  PURITAN  REACTION. 


223 


tives  of  policy,  to  the  Roman  Church,  but  toler- 
ated his  former  colleagues.  The  mighty  Spanish 
Armada  had  foamed  itself  away  in  the  English 
Channel  ;  and  the  unhappy  Mary  Queen  of  Scots, 
had  expiated  all  her  crimes  upon  the  scaffold. 
England  was  at  peace,  and  a  native  literature,  un- 
equalled in  the  world,  had  burst  into  splendid  • 
flower.  The  intellect  of  Germany  was  still  ex- 
hausted by  theological  debate.  The  noble  literary 
promise  of  Italy  and  Spain  was  crushed  by  civil 
and  religious  despotism.  Shakespeare,  the  glory 
of  modern  letters,  was  the  child  of  conservative 
and  Catholic  England.  Second,  and  above  all, 
the  Church  herself  was  represented  by  a  new  gen- 
eration of  scholars,  who  had  learned  to  love  her 
doctrine  and  her  worship,  and  were  not  afraid  to 
throw  off  the  influence  of  the  continental  reform- 
ers, and  boldly  to  defend  her  on  the  solid  grounds 
of  Scripture  and  of  history.  Bancroft  openly  pro- 
claimed the  doctrine  of  the  Apostolical  succession 
in  his  famous  sermon  at  St.  Paul's  Cross  in  Feb- 
ruary, 1589,  and  it  was  warmly  defended  by  a 
learned  layman  of  the  Queen's  Chamber  the  same 
year.  Twelve  months  afterwards  Saravia's  book 
asserted  the  same  doctrine,  and  Bilson  followed 
in  1593  with  his  "Perpetual  Government  of  the 
Church."  Hooker's  crushing  reply  to  the  Puri- 
tans, in  his  "  Ecclesiastical  Polity "  finally  ap- 
peared in  1594.    One  more  attempt  to  Calvinize 


224  THE  PURITAN  REACTION. 


the  Church  by  the  adoption  of  the  Lambeth 
Articles,  was  made  in  1595,  and  was  at  first  ap- 
proved by  Whitgift,  whose  theological  learning 
was  largely  drawn  from  modern  Protestant  sources. 
But  the  time  for  such  an  alliance  was  passed. 
Men  like  Andrews,  Overall  and  Harsnet,  opened 
the  eyes  of  the  Archbishop,  who  had  long  since 
learned  to  doubt  the  infallibility  of  Calvin  and 
Beza,  and  the  scheme  failed.  This  was  practi- 
cally the  end  of  dissenting  Puritanism  as  a  religious 
movement,  since  the  Presbyterian  theory,  as  Green 
says,  never  had  any  general  hold  on  England,  for, 
even  in  the  moment  of  its  seeming  triumph  under 
the  commonwealth,  it  was  rejected  by  the  vast  ma- 
jority of  the  people.  The  close  of  Elizabeth's  reign 
was  marked  by  a  steady,  healthy  development  of 
loyal  Churchmanship,  which  had  certainly  vindi- 
cated itself  in  the  face  of  the  two  great  extremes 
of  theological  antagonism,  and  was  about  to  enter 
upon  a  new  trial,  in  which  unhappy  political  com- 
plications well-nigh  accomplished  its  destruction. 
Some  of  the  most  prominent  of  the  Puritans  real- 
ized themselves  that  a  reaction  had  set  in.  We 
have  already  seen  how  Hooper,  the  first  Non-Con- 
formist, lived  long  enough  to  appreciate  the 
dangers  of  indiscriminate  license  in  matters  of  dis- 
cipline, and  became  at  last  a  strict  and  unflinch- 
ing promoter  of  uniformity  in  his  diocese.  So 
also  Robert  Brown,  the  founder  of  the  Independ- 


THE  PURITAN  REACTION. 


225 


ents,  or  Congregationalists,  the  most  logical,  but 
not  least  intolerant  branch  of  the  Puritans,  who 
has  been  immortalized  by  the  migration  of  some 
of  his  followers  to  New  England  in  the  May- 
flower and  by  the  triumph  of  his  sect  under 
Cromwell,  became  wearied  with  the  discords  which 
he  himself  had  fostered.  His  separatist  commun- 
ion in  Holland  was  rent  with  internal  strife,  and 
Brown  had  to  retreat  to  Scotland  and  thence  to 
England,  where,  by  the  influence  of  his  kinsman, 
Lord  Burleigh,  he  was  allowed  to  make  his  peace 
with  the  Church  and  die  in  her  communion.  And 
Thomas  Cartwright,  the  pitiless  iconoclast,  whose 
language  failed  him  in  the  expression  of  his  dis- 
gust at  Prelacy,  was  conquered  at  last  by  the 
forbearance  of  Whitgift  *  and  the  prospect  of 
contending  sects.  He  died  in  1601  in  friendly 
submission  to  the  Church's  authority,  expressing 
upon  his  death  bed  f  "  his  sorrow  for  the  unneces- 
sary troubles  he  had  caused  the  Church  by  the 
schism  he  had  been  the  great  fomenter  of,  and  his 
wish  that  he  might  begin  his  life  again  in  order 
that  he  -might  testify  to  the  world  the  dislike  he 
had  of  his  former  ways." 

The  reign  of  James  I.  marks  the  beginning  of  a 
new  era.  We  are  all  familiar  with  that  character 
which  the  genius  of  so  many  historians  has  por- 
trayed.   The  King  was  indeed  insignificant  in  his 

*  Fuller,  163.         t  Strype,  Whitgift,  II.  460. 


226 


THE  PURITAN  REACTION. 


appearance;  narrow  and  petulant  in  his  humors; 
childishly  vain  of  his  superficial  acquirements  and 
fatuously  jealous  of  his  royal  prerogative,  but  with 
all  this  not  incapable  at  times  of  the  display  of 
much  shrewd  common  sense  and  a  rather  caustic 
wit.  His  stormy  experience  in  Scotland  had 
thoroughly  cured  him  of  Puritanism,  and  his  as- 
sociation with  the  great  English  Divines  of  the  day 
made  him  an  intelligent  and  ardent  Churchman. 
The  Church  and  the  Crown  were  heartily  united, 
not  only  on  the  ground  of  State  policy  but  also 
of  religious  conviction.  We  all  know  now  and 
deplore  the  misfortune  of  this  alliance.  It  placed 
the  leaders  of  the  Church  on  the  unpopular  side  of 
a  quarrel  not  unlike  that  which  four  hundred  years 
before  the  Church  had  fought  for  the  people 
against  the  King.  And  it  gave  Puritanism  the  ac- 
cidental advantage  of  espousing  the  cause  which 
became  in  later  days  the  cause  of  civil  liberty. 
Strange  that  the  Church  which  fought  for  the 
Magna  Charta  should  have  been  placed  in  the  al- 
titude of  defending  the  tyranny  of  royalty,  and  that 
a  sect  whose  fundamental  doctrine  was  the  ultra- 
montane denial  of  the  rights  of  civil  government 
should  appear  as  the  champion  of  constitutional 
liberty. 

The  political  history  of  James'  reign  is  the  his- 
tory of  the  development  of  the  Parliamentary 
consciousness  of  its  rights  and  of  the  Crown's 


THE  rURITAN  RE  ACTIO  X. 


227 


blind  determination  not  to  recognize  it'.  The  King 
possessed  neither  the  presence,  nor  the  intellect, 
nor  the  courage,  nor  the  personal  popularity  of 
the  Tudors,  and  yet  his  claims  were  even  more 
absolute  and  his  public  utterances  more  dictato- 
rial. Elizabeth  had  recognized  the  growth  of  the 
parliamentary  spirit,  and  after  a  severe  struggle 
over  the  question  of  monopolies,  had  yielded  to 
the  Commons  with  her  usual  sagacity.  But  James 
was  devoid  of  political  wisdom  and  his  four  par- 
liaments, one  by  one,  were  dissolved,  each  more 
discontented  than  the  others.  We  are  familiar 
with  the  Parliament's  use  of  its  financial  authority 
to  bring  the  King  to  terms ;  the  popular  excite- 
ment over  the  King's  exercise  of  his  prerogative 
in  raising  duties  on  imports  and  exports,  and  his 
vindication  by  the  Court  of  Exchequer ;  his  un- 
wise challenge  to  popular  prejudice  in  seeking  a 
Spanish  alliance ;  his  sacrifice  of  Bacon  and 
Raleigh,  and  devotion  to  the  wretched  Bucking- 
ham ;  his  interference  with  the  freedom  of  Parlia- 
mentary debate,  and  his  disastrous  attempt  at  war 
in  the  Palatinate,  altogether  the  seed  of  a  fearful 
harvest  for  his  son  to  reap. 

Ecclesiastically  the  reign  promised  well,  but 
ended  most  unhappily.  The  Church  had  the 
ablest  set  of  Bishops  since  the  Reformation. 
Bancroft,  and  Andrewes,  and  Bilson  would  have 
done  credit  to  any  age,  and  the  translation  of  the 


228 


THE  PURITAN  REACTION. 


Bible  in  1611  is  a  lasting  monument  to  the  lit- 
erary taste  and  judgment  and  scholarship  of  the 
time.  The  Puritans  had  receded  from  many  of 
their  extreme  positions,  and  asked  only  the  privi- 
lege of  ministering  in  the  Church  without  obeying 
the  objectionable  rubrics.  Their  "  millenary  peti- 
tion," or  "petition  of  a  thousand,"  signed  by  750 
preachers,  had  little  weight  with  the  King,  al- 
though he  summoned  representative  Churchmen 
and  Puritans  to  a  Conference  at  Hampton  Court 
in  1604.  The  record  *  of  this  conference  is  a  fair 
illustration  of  the  character  of  the  King  and  the 
method  and  matter  of  the  arguments  on  the  oppos- 
ing sides.  The  King  showed  his  partiality  and  his 
vanity  by  naming  more  Churchmen  than  Puritans, 
and  by  largely  conducting  the  disputation  him- 
self. Yet  some  of  his  arguments  have  so  much 
shrewdness  in  them  that  we  almost  enjoy  his 
interference.  The  Puritans  offered  the  usual  objec- 
tions, with  many  trivial  criticisms  of  the  Prayer 
Book,  as,  for  example,  that  in  the  XXIIId  article 
it  is  said,  "  it  is  not  lawful  for  anyone  in  the  con- 
gregation to  preach  before  he  is  lawfully  called," 
and  this  might  imply  that  "  anyone  out  of  the 
congregation  might  preach  without  being  law- 
fully called."  The  King  expressed  his  objection 
to  adding  any  negative  statements  to  the  Ar- 
ticles, and  said  :  "  I  think  it  unfit  to  thrust  into 


♦Fuller,  III.  172. 


THE  PURITAN  REACTION. 


229 


the  book  of  Articles  every  position  negative,  which 
would  swell  the  book  into  a  volume  as  big  as  the 
Bible  and  confound  the  reader.  Thus,  one  Mr. 
Craig,  in  Scotland,  with  his  '  I  renounce  and 
abhor,'  and  his  multiplied  detestations  and  abre- 
nunciations,  so  amazed  simple  folk  that,  not 
being  able  to  conceive  all  these  things,  they  fell 
back  into  Popery  or  remained  in  their  former  ig- 
norance." Dr.  Reynolds,  who  moderately  pleaded 
for  the  Puritans,  was  the  scholar  of  whom  Fuller 
says  that  "  he  had  been  in  early  life  a  zealous 
Papist,  whilst  his  brother  William  was  as  earnest 
a  Protestant,  and  Providence  so  ordered  it  that  by 
their  mutual  disputation  John  Reynolds  turned 
an  eminent  Protestant  and  William  an  inveterate 
Papist."  He  was  himself  a  strict  Conformist,  and 
although  called  a  leader  of  the  Puritans,  it  is  char- 
acteristic of  the  times  that  on  his  dying  bed  he 
asked  for  and  received  the  formal  absolution  of 
the  Church. 

The  Hampton  Court  Conference  left  the  King 
more  than  ever  satisfied  with  his  aphorism — "  No 
Bishop,  no  King,''  and  the  Churchmen  absurdly 
worshipful  of  his  royal  ability.  The  Puritans,  not 
satisfied  with  the  concessions  made  to  them,  began 
an  earnest  agitation  for  the  ultimate  triumph  of 
their  cause,  by  petitions  and  preaching,  and  by 
the  gradual  acquisition  of  influence  in  Parliament. 

Archbishop  Whitgift  died  in  1604  and  was  sue- 


230  THE  PURITAN  REACTION. 


ceeded  by  Richard  Bancroft,  who  proceeded  on 
the  same  lines  and  with  much  the  same  deter- 
mination. Finding  that  many  of  the  clergy  sub- 
scribed to  the  oath  of  obedience  with  internal  reser- 
vations, he  was  authorized  to  enforce  the  ex  animo 
test  which  compelled  conscientious  acquiescence 
and  roused  great  opposition.  Many  of  the  Puri- 
tans were  deprived,  although  from  the  conflicting 
accounts  it  is  impossible  to  ascertain  the  number; 
and  an  agitation  was  begun  in  Parliament  to  com- 
pel the  Bishops  to  cease  enforcing  obedience  to 
the  rubrics  on  the  ground  that  this  was  the  only 
way  in  which  the  vacant  parishes  could  be  sup- 
plied with  ministers.  Bancroft  rightly  or  wrongly 
held  that  it  was  poor  policy  to  fill  the  pulpits  with 
men  who  ridiculed  the  method  of  public  worship 
they  were  sworn  to  use.  King  James'  resistance 
of  this  demand  of  Parliament  was  the  beginning 
of  his  troubles. 

Lord  Clarendon  in  his  "  History  of  the  Great 
Rebellion  "  praises  the  wisdom  and  efficiency  of 
Bancroft's  administration,  and  maintains  that  his 
policy  of  strict  conformity  was  rapidly  eliminating 
the  obstructionist  element  from  the  Church,  and 
so  by  combining  the  more  zealous  of  the  clergy 
and  people  was  weakening  the  Puritan  party. 
Certain  it  is  that  throughout  this  period  there  is 
growing  complaint  from  the  Puritans  of  the  in- 
creasing popularity  of  the  Church  and  her  cere- 


THE  PURITAN  REACTION.  23  I 


monies* — although  the  stricter  line  between  par- 
ties  and  the  alienation  of  many  who  had  hitherto 
conformed  for  the  sake  of  peace,  together  with  the 
fierce  mutterings  on  the  subject  in  Parliament, 
give  the  impression  of  the  increased  strength  of 
the  opposition. 

The  appointment  of  George  Abbot  to  the 
primacy  in  161 1  was  perhaps  the  very  worst  thing 
that  could  have  happened  to  the  Church.  Whit- 
gift  and  Bancroft  had  been  at  least  consistent,  but 
Abbot  cannot  be  classified.  The  Bishops  had 
agreed  to  recommend  Launcelot  Andrewes,  who 
was  in  every  way  fitted  for  the  position,  but  Ab- 
bot's flattery  of  the  King  and  his  court  influence 
won  the  day.  The  new  primate  was  a  rigid  Cal- 
vinist,  a  sympathizer  with  the  Puritans,  superfi- 
cially learned,  and  narrow  and  morose  in  charac- 
ter. He  showed  his  true  Calvinistic  temper  by 
his  persecution  of  heretics,  two  of  whom  were 
burnt  the  year  after  his  accession,  the  first  time 
such  a  thing  had  happened  in  England,  in  forty 
years. f  Under  him  and  James  together  the 
Church  was  nearly  committed  to  the  Calvinistic 
decrees  of  the  Synod  of  Dort  and  the  pitiful  perse- 
cution of  Barnveldt  and  Hugo  Grotius.  It  was  the 
beginning  of  that  discussion  of  predestination  and 
free-will  which  gave  a  theological  cast  to  the  Puri- 
tan position.    Abbot  favored  and  consorted  with 

*  Perry,  370.  f  Perry,  388. 


232  THE  PURITAN  REACT/OA'. 


Puritans  until  many  of  the  Bishops,  looking  to  the 
King  alone  for  support  and  direction,  became  so 
abject  in  their  flattery  and  dependence  that  we 
read  their  letters  with  shame.  True  there  was  a 
new  school  springing  up  in  the  Universities,  of 
which  Laud  was  the  chief  spirit.  But  the  times 
were  too  critical  for  gradual  improvement.  The 
laxity  and  indifference  and  unwisdom  of  a  reign 
like  that  of  Abbot's  brought  about  a  condition  of 
things,  the  issue  of  which  no  power  on  earth  could 
have  prevented.  Laud  gave  his  life  afterwards  to 
this  hopeless  task — hopeless  in  so  far  as  he  him- 
self did  not  live  to  see  the  result.  That  twenty- 
two  years  from  Bancroft's  death  to  Laud's  acces- 
sion is  in  some  respects  the  saddest  period  in  the 
history  of  the  Church  of  England.  Churchmen, 
blind  to  the  signs  of  the  times,  wasted  their  en- 
ergy in  attacking  Romanism  which  was  powerless 
to  harm  them.  The  Archbishop  fostered  a  nega- 
tive and  hazy  Churchmanship  which  was  sapping 
the  strength  of  the  Establishment  in  high  places. 
It  is  the  drifting  of  a  bark  without  a  pilot  in  a 
stormy  sea,  frightened  by  the  distant  prospect  of 
Romanism  and  hugging  the  dangerous  coast  upon 
which  it  was  fated  to  go  to  pieces. 

When  King  James  died  in  1625,  he  left  the 
Church  weakened  by  the  incompetency  of  its 
leaders,  and  the  Puritans  strong  with  the  patron- 
age and  politic  favor  of  a  discontented  Parliament. 


THE  rURITAN  REACTION. 


233 


There  are  two  events  of  the  reign  which  demand 
a  more  extended  notice,  as  bearing  upon  matters 
of  deep  interest  to  Churchmen  in  our  own  day. 
The  first  is  the  publication  in  161 8  of  the  King's 
"  Book  of  Sports,"  intended  especially  for  the  re- 
lief of  the  people  of  Lancashire,  who  appeared  to 
the  King  to  be  subjected  by  the  magistrates  to  an 
unnecessary  and  ill-advised  restriction  from  all 
recreation  on  Sunday.*  The  book  was  repub- 
lished in  1633  by  order  of  Charles  I.,  and  roused 
the  most  terrific  opposition  because  it  contradicted 
the  fundamental  principle  of  Puritanism,  which 
was  the  literal  application  of  Old  Testament  pre- 
cepts to  the  regulation  of  Christian  conduct.  To 
us  the  provisions  of  the  book,  certainly  if  intended 
for  the  poor  and  laboring  classes,  are  not  unrea- 
sonable. It  was  simply  ordered  that  "  between  the 
hours  of  Divine  Service  which  in  no  case  should  be 
let  or  hindered,"  lawful  athletic  recreations  might 
be  indulged  in,  provided  there  was  nothing  essen- 
tially inconsistent  with  the  observance  of  the  day, 
such  as  bear-baiting  and  bull-baiting  and  cruelties 
of  like  character.  Such  liberty  appears  to  be 
sanctioned,  as  Dr.  Hessey  says.f  by  the  general 
practice  of  the  Church  before  the  Reformation, 
and  was  never  prohibited  either  by  precept  or  ex- 
ample by  the  first  reformers — neither  by  Calvin 
nor  Cranmer,  nor  either,  it  would  seem,  by  John 

*  Fuller,  III.  270.  t  B.  L,  p.  198. 


234 


THE  PURITAN  REACTION. 


Knox  himself.  It  may  be  that  the  confusion  of 
the  times  led  to  an  abuse  of  the  privilege  in  the 
reign  of  Elizabeth,  for  the  Puritan  advocacy  of  a 
Sabbatarian  strictness  begins  about  1 580.  The 
same  view  of  religion  which  induced  the  Puritans 
to  assert  the  obligation  of  the  Mosaic  law  *  in  crim- 
inal cases  so  that  idolaters  or  Papists,  adulterers, 
witches,  demoniacs,  Sabbath-breakers  and  other 
offenders  ought  to  be  put  to  death,  determined 
their  conception  of  Sunday.  To  them  the  word 
Sunday  had  a  heathenish  sound.  It  was  not  found 
in  the  Bible.  The  Sabbath,  with  all  its  severity  of 
judgments,  did  occur  in  that  part  of  it  to  which 
they  were  most  devoted.  Accordingly  they 
reasoned  that  they  were  bound  by  the  Levitical 
ordinance,  although  not  so  strictly  but  that  "  one 
day  in  seven  "  might  be  substituted  for  the  "  sev- 
enth day."  This  interpretation  satisfied  all  the 
difficulties  which  might  arise  from  St.  Paul's  epis- 
tles. These  floating  opinions  were  reduced  to 
a  system  in  a  book  written  by  Dr.  P.  Bownd  and 
published  in  1595.  He  declares  that  the  Mosaic 
law  on  the  subject  is  moral  and  perpetual  and  for- 
bids all  levity  on  the  Christian  Sabbath,  from  "  the 
ringing  of  two  bells  "  to  private  conversation  on 
pleasurable  or  worldly  topics.  It  was  nothing  to 
him  that  the  Church  in  every  age  had  distinguished 
between  the  Jewish  Sabbath  and  the  Christian 

*  Cf.  Hallam,  C.  H.  I.  210. 


THE  PURITAN  REACTION. 


235 


festival,  and  the  inference  from  the  New  Testa- 
ment was  disregarded.  The  ideas  thus  promul- 
gated spread  with  great  rapidity  and  were  welcome 
to  large  numbers  of  people  who  in  transition  from 
one  religion  to  another  craved  definite  and  decided 
changes.  Their  natural  outcome  among  American 
Puritans  is  seen  in  the  "  Blue  Laws  "  of  Connecti- 
cut, and  in  the  very  logical  and  apparently  unan- 
swerable position  taken  by  John  Traske  in 
England  in  1618.  This  man  argued  that  the 
observance  of  the  first  day  of  the  week  under  a 
strict  interpretation  of  the  Jewish  law  was  inconsist- 
ent and  that  if  it  was  wrong  to  change  the  manner 
of  observance,  it  was  wrong  to  change  the  day. 
He  accordingly  founded  a  sect  which  substituted 
Saturday  for  Sunday  and  in  many  other  respects 
conformed  to  the  literal  observance  of  Old  Testa- 
ment precepts.  To  us,  as  we  recall  the  storm  of 
abuse  through  which  Laud  and  Charles  I.  had  to 
pass  in  their  opposition  to  this  Sabbatarian  view, 
it  cannot  but  be  a  cause  of  devout  thanksgiving 
that  the  Church  of  England  has  never  committed 
herself  to  any  man's  theory  on  this  subject,  but 
has  quietly  followed  in  the  footsteps  of  the  Apos- 
tles and  of  the  Catholic  Church  for  eighteen  cen- 
turies in  celebrating  "  the  Day  of  our  Lord's 
Resurrection  and  the  weekly  earnest  of  our  own  "  ; 
teaching  her  people  to  reverence  the  great  event 
which  the  day  commemorates,  and  trusting  an  en- 


236  THE  PURITAN  REACTION. 


lightened  conscience  more  than  written  law  :  rec- 
ognizing that  all  men  are  not  alike  either  in 
disposition,  in  habit,  in  position  or  circumstances, 
and  that  while  the  Church's  public  and  formal 
thanksgiving  to  God  is  not  neglected,  there  may 
be  various  and  lawful  expression  of  our  serious 
joy  over"  the  day  which  the  Lord  hath  made  "  for 
the  good  of  all  His  children. 

The  second  matter  of  special  importance — im- 
portant because  it  led  ultimately  to  that  league 
between  Scotland  and  the  Long  Parliament  which 
overthrew  the  Church  and  throne  of  England — was 
the  consecration  in  1610  of  three  Bishops  for  the 
Scotch  Church.  This  measure,  though  pressed  by 
the  King,  seems  to  have  been  fully  sanctioned  by  the 
Scotch  Assembly*  which  nominated  the  three  Bish- 
ops to  be  consecrated.  Indeed  during  the  whole 
terrible  and  turbulent  period  of  the  Scotch  Refor- 
mation from  1560  onwards — a  movement  which  for 
barbarous  violence  has  no  parallel  except  perhaps 
in  Switzerland — there  had  never  been  more  than 
eight  years  when  there  was  not  a  nominal  or 
pseudo-Episcopacy.  The  eight  years  of  Melville's 
Presbyterian  government  really  ended  in  iooo.f 
During  the  two  years  following  James  was  in  cor- 
respondence with  Bancroft,  having  already  secured 
the  passage  of  an  act  restoring  the  Bishops  to  parlia- 
ment.   In  1603  or  1604  a  canon  was  passed  by  the 

*  Perry,  382.  t  Lawton. 


THE  PURITAN  REACTION. 


237 


English  Convocation  ordering  prayer  to  be  said 
for  the  Church  of  Scotland  which,  considering  the 
high  views  of  Bancroft  and  Andrewes,  the  authors 
of  the  canon,  maybe  taken  as  an  indication  that  a 
genuine  Episcopacy  was  about  to  be  restored 
to  that  country.  The  unhistorical  use  of  this 
canon  to  convict  the  English  Church  of  official 
recognition  of  the  validity  of  non-episcopal  ordina- 
tion, suggests  the  propriety  of  a  brief  consider- 
ation of  the  views  of  Episcopacy  entertained  by 
the  reformers  on  the  continent  and  in  England. 
There  can  be  no  question  as  to  the  law  of  the  Eng- 
lish Church.  That  has  been  declared  of  late  years 
by  judicial  decision.  The  statutes  and  formal 
doctrinal  statements  are  unwavering  from  the 
beginning.  "  The  Institution  of  a  Christian  Man," 
put  forth  in  1 537  *  before  the  question  of  orders 
had  arisen,  is  clear  enough,  though  in  Scholastic 
language.  The  Ordinal  of  1 549,  which  the  Puritans 
interpreted  as  teaching  Apostolical  Succession, 
the  twenty-third  and  thirty-sixth  of  the  XXXIX. 
Articles,  the  Acts  of  Elizabeth,  even  the  "  Refor- 
matio Legum,"  leave  no  room  for  doubt  as  to  the 
Church's  mind.  It  has  been  said  that  Whitting- 
ham,  Dean  of  Durham  in  Elizabeth's  reign,  and 
Travers,  preacher  at  the  Temple,  had  neither  of 
them  received  Episcopal  ordination,  and  this  is 
true.    But  Whittingham  died  while  his  trial  was 

*  Formularies  of  Henry  VHIth's  reign. 


238  THE  PURITAN  REACTION. 


pending,  and  Travers  was  actually  deprived  for 
this  violation  of  the  law.*  At  the  beginning 
of  Elizabeth's  reign  a  letter  was  received  from 
Calvin  requesting  the  Queen  to  take  steps  for 
holding  a  conference  of  all  Protestants  for  the 
purpose  of  uniting  them  under  a  common  gov- 
ernment and  discipline.  To  this  the  Council 
quietly  replied  through  the  Archbishop  that  they 
would  take  the  matter  under  consideration,  but 
that  the  English  Church  was  determined  to  pre- 
serve her  Episcopate  which  had  come  down  to  her 
from  Joseph  of  Arimathea  in  British  times  before 
the  Roman  usurpation. f  This  was  the  English 
view  of  Episcopacy  without  any  uncalled  for  criti- 
cism of  other  Christian  bodies.  The  law  of  the 
English  Church  never  wavered  once.  As  for  the 
personal  views  of  the  reformers  themselves  they 
are  rather  difficult  to  ascertain  in  the  continuous 
shifting  of  their  theological  position,  but  are  inter- 
esting in  the  light  of  modern  discussion.  Until 
1532  the  treatment  of  the  subject  of  Holy  Orders 
was  evidently  largely  influenced  by  the  Scholastic 
language.  S.  Thomas  Aquinas  expressed  the 
views  of  the  Schoolmen  in  his  "  Summa  Theolo- 
giae,"  where  (Q.  40  and  41  Sup.),  in  order  to  em- 
phasize the  dignity  of  the  priestly  office  and  the 
supremacy  of  the  Pope,  he  denies  that  the  Episco- 
pate is  a  separate  order,  although  in  other  places 


*  Neale  I.  145. 


tStrypes  Parker,  I.  138. 


THE  PURITAN  REACTION. 


239 


he  asserts  the  distinct  superiority  of  Bishops  in 
matters  of  government.  The  Papal  claims  were 
in  constant  conflict  with  the  earlier  doctrine  of  the 
Apostolical  Succession  so  that  John  Gerson,  Chan- 
cellor of  the  University  of  Paris,  in  1410* 
declares  that  the  authority  of  the  Episcopate 
had  been  so  depreciated  by  the  Papalists  that  they 
had  left  only  "  painted  images  of  Bishops."  As 
late  as  1560  the  Italian  party  in  the  Council  of 
Trent  succeeded  in  suppressing  the  true  doctrine 
of  the  Apostolical  Succession  which  had  been 
urged  by  the  Spanish  and  French  Bishops. f  To 
this  we  may  add  the  enormous  prominence  given 
to  the  sacrificial  aspect  of  the  Eucharist,  which 
created  a  desire  to  level  the  Episcopate  down  to 
the  Priesthood,  and  it  will  be  evident  that  the 
germ  of  later  Protestant  theories  was  found  in 
Ultramontanism.  Thus  the  earlier  reformers 
started  out  with  at  best  a  maimed  conception  of 
the  ministry  which  prepared  them,  deserted  as 
they  were  by  their  Bishops,  for  the  ultimate  denial 
of  the  Episcopal  succession,  whenever  a  new 
theory  of  government  should  be  boldly  proclaimed. 
This  tendency  was  increased  by  the  popular  iden- 
tification of  the  Episcopal  regime  with  Papal 
tyranny.  As  it  was,  however,  Luther  and  Melanc- 
thon  fairly  longed  for  a  restoration  of  Episcopacy,^; 
and  Bucer  regarded  it  as  established  by  the  Holy 

*  Gies.  iv.  131.       t  Buckley.       \  Hardwick,  p.  343  n. 


240  THE  PURITAN  REACTION. 


Ghost.*  The  Augsburg  confession  itself  accepts 
the  government  of  Bishops,  and  whatever  Eras- 
tianism  colored  Cranmer's  wavering  opinions  he 
certainly  had  very  high  views  of  the  ministry  in 
1548  and  I549f  just  about  the  time  when  the 
preface  to  our  Ordinal  was  written.  In  1 541  John 
Calvin,  a  French  layman,  never  in  Holy  Orders, 
"  flew  to  his  funereal  throne  of  Geneva"  and  be- 
gan to  teach  that  Bishops  and  Presbyters  were 
originally  of  the  same  order,  quoting  the  private 
opinion  of  S.  Jerome.^  His  genius  recognized 
that  the  Lutherans  had  crippled  themselves  by 
subjection  to  the  State  and  he  seized  the  acciden- 
tal advantages  offered  him  in  Geneva  to  establish 
a  system  which  became  a  considerable  factor  in  our 
history.  Calvin  never  denied  the  historical  pres- 
tige and  expediency  of  the  Episcopal  government 
— in  one  of  his  letters  he  recommends  it  to  be 
adopted,  and  in  his  Commentary  on  Titus  he  ad- 
mits its  apostolic  institution.  Yet  the  Genevan 
Council  of  Presbyters  gradually  became  to  the 
continental  reformers  the  model  of  all  Church 
government,  and  it  is  amazing  in  the  light  of  this 
history  to  hear  the  exclusive  claims  of  this 
system  so  strongly  asserted  in  Elizabeth's  reign 
that  there  are  several  instances  of  English  clergy 
going  over  to  the  Continent  to  be  reordained 
by    Calvin's    successors    on   the    ground  that 


t  Catechism,  1548. 


I  Institutes. 


THE  PUR  J TAN  REACTION. 


24  [ 


their  previous  ordination  was  invalid.*  The  do- 
minion that  Calvin  claimed  and  exercised  in  the 
Protestant  world  of  the  sixteenth  century  has  no 
parallel  in  history.  It  was  dangerous  to  differ 
from  him  and  his  word  was  law.  The  generation 
of  English  Churchmen  immediately  succeeding 
Cranmer  grew  up  under  this  influence.  In  Mary's 
reign  they  were  indebted  to  the  continental  re- 
formers for  many  offices  of  friendship,  and  they 
were  drawn  to  them  by  the  bond  of  a  common 
persecution.  Calvin,  Bullinger  and  Beza  gradu- 
ally supplanted  Luther  and  Melancthon  as  au- 
thorities in  theology  and  the  ancient  Fathers  were 
but  superficially  examined.  For  thirty  years 
therefore  there  is  an  unsatisfactory  vagueness  and 
sometimes  an  Erastian  indifference  on  the  part  of 
English  Churchmen,  even  like  Parker,  in  asserting 
the  historic  truth  of  Episcopacy.  Most  of  them 
seem  to  have  been  satisfied  to  preserve  the  insti- 
tution themselves  without  hazarding  any  opinion 
as  to  the  continental  Churches,  holding,  as  Bram- 
hall  expressed  it,  that  "  it  is  charity  to  think  well 
of  our  neighbors  and  good  divinity  to  look  well  to 
ourselves."!  The  fiercer  race  of  Puritans,  recog- 
nizing the  feebleness  of  this  position,  boldly  op- 
posed to  it  the  positive,  dogmatic  claim  of  the 
divine  obligation  of  Presbyterian  government,  and 
this  was  successfully  resisted  only  when  a  new 

*  Neale,  I.  144.         t  III.  475. 


-4- 


THE  PURITAN  REACTION. 


generation  of  men  like  Bancroft,  Bilson,  Saravia 
and  Andrewes  dared  to  defend  the  Prayer  Book 
theory  of  the  ministry  by  an  appeal  to  Scripture 
and  antiquity — and  to  take  a  stand  which,  if  not 
agreeable  to  the  politicians,  was  at  least  defensible 
and  consistent.  Hooker,  while  carefully  leaving 
a  rather  impracticable  loophole  of  escape  for  his 
opponents  in  two  hypothetical  cases  of  special 
revelation  and  absolute  necessity,  shows  no  real 
doubt  as  to  his  own  position.  He  was  a  pioneer 
— his  great  work  was  of  an  essentially  tentative 
character,  although  some  controversialists  have 
endeavored  vainly  to  find  in  him  the  final  state- 
ment of  the  Anglican  position.  In  Mr.  Gar- 
diner's words,  "  Hooker's  greatness  indeed  .  .  . 
consisted  rather  in  the  entireness  of  his  nature 
than  in  the  thoroughness  with  which  his  particu- 
lar investigations  were  carried  out.  .  .  .  The 
work  which  had  to  be  done  by  the  generation 
which  came  after  him  was  work  which  he  could 
not  do.  .  .  .  Men  were  to  arise  who  in  clear- 
ness of  conception  and  in  logical  precision,  sur- 
passed the  great  Elizabethan  writer  as  far  as  the 
political  themes  of  Pym  and  Somers  surpassed 
those  of  Elizabethan  statesmen."  * 

The  storm  of  political  revolution  was  already 
gathering  when  Charles  I.  came  to  the  throne 
of  England  in  1625.    The  gradual  development 


*  I.  158  (cf.  Perry). 


THE  PURITAN  REACTION.  243 


of  the  royal  power,  largely  emphasized  by  an- 
tagonism to  the  temporal  claims  of  the  Papacy 
and  the  decay  of  feudalism,  had  brought  men 
face  to  face  with  the  issue  between  absolutism 
in  government  and  constitutional  liberty.  Spain 
and  France  had  solved  the  problem  in  favor 
of  pure  despotism,  and  it  was  left  to  Eng- 
land to  enter  upon  that  terrific  struggle  which 
lasted  over  forty  years,  and  which  is  in  many  re- 
spects the  most  important  and  the  most  deplora- 
ble in  her  annals.  The  movement  was  conducted 
not  by  the  mass  of  the  people,  for  it  was  not  in 
the  true  sense  popular,  but  by  a  group  of  promi- 
nent leaders  who  were  not  perfectly  clear  in  their 
own  minds  as  to  the  end  in  view,  and  who  had 
hardly  begun  their  work  of  political  reform  before 
they  were  overwhelmed,  and  driven  and  swept 
away  by  a  riot  of  religious  and  political  fanaticism 
which  tore  up  the  institutions  of  government  and 
society  from  their  foundations.  Thus  Churchmen 
like  Hampden,  Pym  and  Eliot  sounded  the  note 
of  civil  freedom,  and  Puritans  like  Prynne  and 
Peters  and  Cromwell  swelled  it  into  a  blast  of 
anarchy.  The  conflicting  currents  of  thought  and 
action  during  this  period  defy  complete  analysis. 
The  elements  of  truth  in  all  such  national  convul- 
sions are  to  be  judged  only  by  their  permanent  re- 
sults and  two  things  survived  the  English  rebel- 
lion.   The  principle  of  constitutional  liberty  was 


244  THE  PURITAN  REACTION. 


established  in  1688  and  the  widespread  reaction  in 
favor  of  the  old  Church  was  the  triumphant  wit- 
ness to  the  folly  and  fanaticism  which  had  tried  to 
confound  religious  with  political  questions.  What 
the  Church,  trammelled  as  she  was,  had  failed  to 
accomplish  by  the  unhappy  use  of  the  secular  arm, 
was  easily  won  by  the  glaring  incompetence  of  the 
enemies  who  supplanted  her. 

The  logic  of  events  has  forever  demolished  that 
theory  of  the  divine  right  of  kings  for  which  Charles 
I.  contended  ;  but  the  most  brilliant  historian  has 
failed  in  his  effort  to  justify  the  proceedings  of 
the  Long  Parliament  or  to  convict  the  King  of 
intentional  injustice.  Charles  I.  began  his  reign 
fettered,  handicapped  by  a' false  and  pernicious 
education  which  had  filled  him  with  a  conscious- 
ness of  the  royal  prerogative.  That  isolation 
which  was  pre-eminently  in  his  day  the  curse  of 
kings  shut  him  off  from  any  real  knowledge  of  the 
feelings  and  the  needs  and  wishes  of  his  people, 
for  Parliament  was  not  yet  truly  representative. 
He  was  by  nature  weak  and  yielding.  He  lacked 
that  enormous  self-will  which  is  the  safety  and 
shame  of  tyrants.  He  was  not  gifted  with  the 
bold  shrewdness  and  unscrupulous  craft  which 
made  Elizabeth's  deception  not  only  successful 
but  respectable  and  gained  for  kings  the  reputa- 
tion for  statesmanship.  His  unskilful  attempts  at 
so-called  diplomacy  have  excited  the  scorn  of  par- 


THE  PURITAN  REACTION. 


245 


tial  historians.  His  theory  of  royalty  and  his 
treatment  of  parliaments  are  the  well-worn  targets 
of  modern  ridicule.  And  yet  there  are  thousands 
of  men  who  deplore  the  strange  and  dreadful  fury 
which  made  him  its  victim.  His  kingly  dignity, 
his  courage,  the  personal  purity  and  gentleness  of 
his  private  life,  his  love  of  art  and  literature,  ap- 
peal still  to  many  men  who  pity  his  weakness  in 
sacrificing  Strafford,  and  compassionate  the  en- 
forced ignorance  and  hereditary  blindness  which 
failed  to  read  the  signs  of  the  times ;  and  admire 
the  devotion  with  which,  in  spite  of  wife  and 
friends,  he  clung  to  the  Church  he  loved  and  went 
calmly  to  his  death.  He  was  at  his  best  when  he 
stood  upon  the  scaffold.  As  even  Macaulay  is 
forced  to  say:  "The  captive  King,  retaining  all 
his  regal  dignity  and  confronting  death  with 
dauntless  courage,  gave  utterance  to  the  feelings 
of  his  oppressed  people,  manfully  refused  to  plead 
before  a  court  unknown  to  the  law,  appealed  from 
military  violence  to  the  principles  of  the  constitu- 
tion, asked  by  what  right  the  House  of  Commons 
had  been  purged  of  its  most  respectable  members 
and  the  House  of  Lords  deprived  of  its  legislative 
functions,  and  told  his  weeping  hearers  that  he 
was  defending  not  only  his  cause  but  theirs  .  .  . 
and  thus  his  enemies  gave  him  an  opportunity  of 
displaying  at  the  last  on  a  great  theatre  before 
the  eyes  of  all  nations  and  ages  some  qualities 


246 


THE  PURITAN  REACTION. 


which  irresistibly  call  forth  the  admiration  and 
love  of  mankind,  the  high  spirit  of  a  gallant  gen- 
tleman and  the  patience  and  meekness  of  a  peni- 
tent Christian." 

The  history  of  the  Church  from  1630  to  1644  is 
the  life  of  William  Laud,  successively  President  of 
S.  John's  College,  Oxford,  Bishop  of  London  and 
Archbishop  of  Canterbury.  It  has  taken  two- 
hundred  and  fifty  years  for  the  smoke  of  bitter 
controversy  and  unscrupulous  abuse  to  clear  away, 
and  even  now  historians  are  only  beginning  to  do 
him  simple  justice.  It  is  hardly  to  be  expected 
that  those  who  deny  the  truth  of  his  religious  posi- 
tion will  find  anything  attractive  in  him.  But 
any  Churchman  who  regards  Christianity  as  an 
historical  inheritance ;  whose  sympathy  is  roused 
and  his  zeal  inflamed  by  the  memory  of  the 
Church's  continuous  organic  life ;  anyone  who  re- 
jects the  theory  that  religion  is  the  mere  product 
of  the  individual  or  collective  consciousness  of  any 
age  or  generation — he  must  find  in  Laud.  no. 
perfection  perhaps,  not  freedom  from  all  fault  and 
weakness,  but  an  example  of  heroic  unselfishness 
as  honest  and  as  fearless  as  any  which  the 
English  Church  has  produced.  The  reckless 
and  unlimited  abuse  which  his  enemies  have 
heaped  upon  him  is  the  best  contradiction  of  their 
repeated  statement  that  he  was  not  a  great  man. 

Laud  was  fifteen   years  old  when  Bancroft 


THE  PURITAN  REACTION.  247 


preached  his  famous  sermon  at  St.  Paul's  Cross  in 
1589  and  the  full  tide  of  the  earnest  Churchman- 
ship  of  that  era  swept  his  heart  away  with  it. 
One  idea  took  possession  of  him — mind  and  soul. 
He  dreamed  of  a  Church  which  should  be  truly 
Catholic ;  which  should  be  loyal  to  those  funda- 
mental principles  of  faith  and  order  which  had 
conquered  the  heathenism  of  Rome  and  had  sur- 
vived the  contention  and  abuse  of  fifteen  centu- 
ries. A  Church  which  should  be  too  broad,  he 
said,  to  bind  men's  minds  in  the  specific  and  nar- 
row doctrinal  tyranny  of  either  the  Romanist  or 
the  Puritan  ;  which  should  be  a  patron  of  art,  of 
literature,  of  science,  and  yet  be  faithful  to  all  that 
was  truest  and  noblest  in  her  venerable  past.  To 
this  idea  Laud  devoted  all  his  time,  his  energy, 
his  learning.  He  saw  the  Church  drifting  into  a 
narrow  and  immoral  Calvinistic  conception  of  God, 
with  its  theory  of  an  invisible  and  unknowable 
Church  and  unreal  sacraments.  He  saw  the  Ro- 
manist on  the  one  hand  and  the  Puritan  on  the 
other  pledged  to  accomplish  the  Church's  ruin, 
and  men  in  high  place  who  had  been  enriched  by 
her  spoil  encouraging  that  fanaticism.  At  Oxford 
men  called  him  an  Arminian  and  a  Romanist. 
They  scoffed  at  his  reverence  and  reviled  at  his 
doctrine.  The  leader  of  the  Puritans  taunted  him 
with  being  a  poor  man's  son  and  the  chief  of  the 
Romanists  sneered  at  his   mad   theory  of  the 


248  THE  PURITAN  REACTION. 


Church's  Catholicity.  He  was  always  calm,  un- 
ruffled and  persistent.  His  learning  vanquished 
his  opponents  when  his  patience  did  not  disarm 
them.  He  made  his  way  through  a  very  thicket 
of  curses  and  contempt,  and  he  lived  to  find  him- 
self, in  spite  of  almost  unnumbered  obstacles, 
Bishop  of  London  at  the  age  of  fifty-five  and 
Archbishop  of  Canterbury  at  sixty-one.  During 
all  these  years  he  had  not  wavered  for  an  instant 
The  idea  of  the  Church  in  the  breadth,  fulness 
and  richness  of  her  life  and  beauty — that  idea  had 
mastered  and  possessed  him.  As  Archbishop  of 
Canterbury  he  had  the  power  he  thought  to  real- 
ize something  of  his  dream.  The  King  was  no 
longer  an  Erastian  Tudor  but  himself  religiously 
loyal  to  the  Church,  and  Laud  saw  in  the  legal 
authority  of  the  Archiepiscopal  office  an  instru- 
ment for  the  accomplishment  of  his  purpose.  He 
used  the  High  Commission  Court  as  he  found  it 
and  for  the  existence  of  which  he  was  not  responsi- 
ble. He  increased  and  enlarged  his  power  by 
personal  influence.  He  rebuked  the  King  for  dis- 
regard of  the  proprieties  of  public  worship.  He 
converted  the  frivolous  Buckingham  to  his  views. 
He  roused  the  poorer  clergy  to  something  like  en- 
thusiasm. He  threw  himself  perhaps  unwisely 
into  the  political  life  of  the  nation  and  mastered 
every  detail  of  its  commerce  and  manufacture. 
The  greatest  minds  of  the  Church  owed  their  en- 


THE  PURITAN  REACTION. 


249 


couragement  or  elevation  to  him, — Jeremy  Taylor, 
Sanderson,  Bramhall,  Heylin,  Herbert,  Hammond, 
Chillingworth.  He  fought  Romanism  with  un- 
precedented success  because  he  stood  on  solid, 
historic  ground,  and  the  Pope  took  the  mean 
revenge  of  offering  him  a  Cardinal's  hat  in  order 
to  rouse  against  him  the  reckless  hatred  of  his 
enemies.  The  Puritans  said  that  he  had  no  re- 
ligion because  for  this  great  dream  of  his  life  he 
consented  to  mix  with  the  courtly  crowd  and  busy 
himself  with  State  questions  of  the  time.  Yet 
beneath  all  this  busy,  terrifically  exciting,  superfi- 
cial life,  his  diary  showed  that  he  was  religious — 
religious  after  the  old  fashion,  the  religion  of  the 
hair-shirt  and  leathern  girdle — in  bitter  penitence, 
in  strict  self-denial,  in  hours  of  private  agony  and 
rapture  of  prayer,  in  glad  study  of  Holy  Scripture. 
Little  he  thought  that  some  of  his  enemies  whose 
religion  consisted  largely  in  confident  assurance  of 
their  freedom  from  sin  and  certainty  of  salvation, 
would  drag  out  these  expressions  of  penitence 
from  his  diary  and  torture  them  into  an  admission 
of  heinous  crime.  He  did  not  know  or  seem  to  real- 
ize that  it  was  too  late  ;  that  complications  had 
arisen  which  rendered  a  struggle  for  the  Church 
unequal;  that  Puritanism  was  too  completely  or- 
ganized to  be  easily  overthrown.  The  Archbishop 
made  himself  unpopular.  At  the  King's  desire  he 
approved  and  encouraged  the  introduction  of  litur- 


250  THE  PURITAN  REACTION. 


gical  worship  into  the  Scotch  Church  where  an 
Episcopal  government  was  smothered  by  a  Calvin- 
istic  machinery.  He  dared  to  rebuke  the  nobles 
for  their  immoral  and  unchristian  living.  He 
dared  to  insist  upon  the  Church's  right  to  her  own 
incomes  and  to  take  the  part  of  the  poorer  and  lower 
clergy  and  to  censure  Bishops  for  living  in  luxury 
in  London  when  their  dioceses  were  neglected. 
He  dared  to  be  accessible  always  to  the  poor  and 
the  oppressed,  to  give  them  lavishly  of  his  income, 
to  dress  plainly,  to  avoid  ostentation  and  to  pro- 
test against  the  fanaticism,  the  narrowness  of 
Puritanism,  and  to  assert  the  native  healthfulness 
and  brightness  of  the  English  character.  He  of- 
fended that  class  of  land-owners  who  controlled 
Parliament  and  who  never  forgave  him  for  making 
his  way  to  high  office  in  the  Church.  Above  all  he 
refused  to  permit  men  who  voluntarily  took  the 
vows  in  the  Ordinal  to  contradict  the  Prayer 
Book  in  all  their  services :  for  of  one  thing  he  was 
certain — that  the  "Prayer  Book,  whatever  else  it 
was,  had  never  been  a  Puritan  book  and  until  it 
should  be  changed  it  ought  to  be  obeyed. 

They  said  that  he  was  an  innovator  and  he  was. 
He  repaired  the  old  Cathedral  windows  which  had 
been  broken  down,  and  he  loved  the  dignity  and 
grandeur  of  a  ceremonial  service.  He  found  the 
communion  table  in  churches  a  mockery  and  a 
disgrace.*    "  Churchwardens  kept  their  accounts 

*  Quoted  by  Mozley. 


THE  PURITAN  REACTION. 


251 


on  it ;  parishioners  despatched  parish  business 
at  it ;  schoolmasters  taught  their  boys  to  write  at 
it ;  boys  had  their  hats,  satchels  and  books  upon 
it ;  men  sat  on  it  and  leant  on  it  at  sermon  time, 
and  glaziers  knocked  it  full  of  nail  holes."  He  did 
resent  this,  as  even  the  Puritan  Abbot  had 
done  before  him,*  and  he  ordered  that  the  table 
should  be  placed  close  to  the  wall  against  the  east 
end  of  the  church  and  railed  off  from  the  congre- 
gation with  a  "  railing  close  enough  to  keep  out 
the  dogs."  That  was  all.  He  did  practise  acts  of 
reverence  and  encourage  men  to  do  so,  but  I  do 
not  find  them  in  the  published  orders.  In  fact  as 
we  read  Bishop  Wren's  "  orders  and  directions," 
put  out  with  Laud's  sanction,  and  the  charges 
made  against  him  at  his  trial,  we  are  astonished  at 
his  moderation.  Laud  was  not  hated  chiefly  for 
his  ceremonialism.  He  was  hated  because  he  be- 
lieved in  the  Catholicity  and  historical  continuity 
of  the  Church  ;  because  he  refused  to  permit  the 
XXXIX.  Articles  to  be  interpreted  in  the  interest 
of  the  extremest  Calvinism  and  the  whole  tone 
and  teaching  of  the  Prayer  Book  to  be  ignored. 
He  was  hated  finally  because  in  every  position 
he  took  he  seemed  to  be  so  resolutely  successful. 
As  he  said  boldly  at  his  trial :  "  Whatever  I  did,  I 
did  to  the  uttermost  of  my  knowledge,  according 
to  both  law  and  canon  and  with  the  consent  and 

*Cardwell,  II.  227. 


252  THE  PURITAN  REACTION. 


liking  of  the  people;  nor  did  any  command  issue 
out  from  me  against  the  one  or  without  the  other 
that  I  know  of." 

Every  man  has  his  failings  and  Laud's  lack  of 
tact  and  policy,  his  care  for  little  things,  his 
straightforward  resoluteness  and  invincible  deter- 
mination won  for  him  the  reputation  of  being 
bigoted,  foolish,  superstitious  and  narrow-minded. 
The  best  modern  criticism,  even  that  which  is  un- 
friendly, does  him  more  justice  and  contents  itself 
with  saying  that  he  was  pure,  unselfish,  even  ascetic 
in  his  private  life,  that  he  was  by  nature  a  lover 
of  order  and  discipline, "  devoid  of  the  higher  spirit- 
ual enthusiasm  "  which  characterizes  greater  minds. 
He  was  devoid  of  that  "higher  spiritual  enthusi- 
asm" which  would  attempt  an  uncertain  union  of 
the  Church  by  the  surrender  of  the  fundamental 
principles  upon  which  her  life  had  rested  for  one 
thousand  five  hundred  years.  His  bitterest  enemy 
admitted  that  his  defence  before  Parliament  was 
able,  learned  and  complete  and  that  there  was  no 
law  under  which  he  could  be  convicted.  And  so 
he  died — the  old  man  in  his  seventy-third  year. 
Or  as  he  expressed  it,  he  passed  through  the  red- 
sea — the  sea  of  blood — with  the  same  calm  and 
cheerful  trust  in  God  which  had  characterized  him 
all  his  life  and  which  provoked  his  tormentcrs 
into  a  brutality  of  petty  cruelty  upon  the  scaffold, — 
a  cheerfulness  which  some  count  madness  and 


THE  PURITAN  REACTION. 


253 


others  know  to  be  the  assurance  of  faith.  As 
Professor  Mozley  says :  "  Laud  saved  the  English 
Church  " — saved  her  from  being  choked  with  the 
iron  chain  of  Calvinism  and  made  it  possible  that 
men  with  Catholic  convictions  could  live  within 
her  fold. 

The  history  of  the  long  parliament  demonstrates 
the  deadly  effect  of  all  these  years  of  religious 
strife.  The  parliament  was  composed  almost  en- 
tirely of  Churchmen,  but  Churchmen  of  three 
classes.  There  were  those  who  sympathized  with 
Laud  and  who  regarded  the  Church  as  their 
Catholic  heritage  and  reverenced  its  sacraments  and 
its  services.  There  were  others,  including  many 
of  the  nobility  and  gentry  who  owed  their  place 
and  fortunes  to  Tudor  times,  who  regarded  the 
Church  as  a  department  of  the  State  and  were  satis- 
fied with  the  expediency  of  Episcopal  government 
if  it  could  be  easily  and  consistently  maintained. 
And  finally  there  were  Churchmen  who  were  in- 
fected with  Calvinistic  doctrine  and  who  secretly 
longed  for  further  reformation  in  the  direction  of 
the  Genevan  model,  and  who  had  conformed  to 
the  Prayer  Book  rather  from  policy  than  convic- 
tion. Neither  of  these  two  latter  classes  of  Church- 
men were  capable  of  resisting  the  strain  ot 
political  necessity. 

Parliament  in  1606  fought  King  James  and  de- 
clared that  the  Scots  were  beggars,  rebels,  traitors  ; 


254 


THE  PURITAN  REACTION. 


that  there  had  not  been  a  single  King  of  Scotland 
who  had  not  been  murdered  by  his  subjects,  and 
that  it  was  as  reasonable  to  unite  England  and 
Scotland  as  it  would  be  to  place  a  prisoner  at  the 
bar  on  an  equality  with  a  judge  upon  the  bench.  * 
And  Parliament  in  1643,  alarmed  for  its  own  safety 
in  the  civil  war  against  the  King,  abandoned  the 
Church  in  order  to  get  assistance  from  the  Scotch 
and  bound  itself  by  the  "  Solemn  league  and 
and  covenant"  to  extirpate  Prelacy  and  to  submit  to 
Presbyterianism.  Thus  Puritanism  won  the  day 
and  began  a  seventeen  years'  reign  of  religious  in- 
tolerance and  confusion  without  a  precedent  in 
English  history.  Prelacy  was  abolished.  Calvin- 
ism was  adopted.  A  Directory  of  worship  was 
published.  All  holidays  were  forbidden — all  relig- 
ious services  at  funerals  were  condemned.  The 
use  of  the  Prayer  Book  in  public  or  in  private  was 
prohibited  and  a  penalty  imposed  of  a  fine  of  £$  for 
the  first  offence  and  imprisonment  for  the  second, 
and  this  was  afterwards  extended  to  a  recitation 
of  the  prayers  from  memory.  Walker,  on  p.  198 
of  his  book  on  "  The  Sufferings  of  the  Clergy." 
demonstrates  with  abundant  evidence  that  about 
8,000  of  the  English  clergy,  most  of  them  with 
their  wives  and  children,  were  ejected  from  their 
livings,  notwithstanding  numerous  petitions  from 
their  parishioners,  and  left  without  means  of  sup- 
*  Skottowe,  p.  63. 


THE  PURITAN  REACTION. 


255 


port.  Some  fled  to  the  continent,  many  were  im- 
prisoned, some  starved  to  death,  and  negotiations 
were  entered  into  for  disposing  of  some  of  them 
by  selling  them  into  slavery.  Churches  were 
desecrated,  and  art  galleries  and  monuments 
destroyed.  Horses  and  swine  were  baptized  in 
mockery  in  the  Cathedral  fonts.  S.  Paul's  became 
a  stable  for  horses,  and  Westminster  Abbey  was 
turned  into  a  barrack.  Within  two  years  sixteen 
sects  sprang  up  which  vied  with  each  other  in  the 
active  encouragement  of  misrule.  Arguments 
against  toleration  were  put  forth  by  the  Presby- 
terian party  which  anathematized  schism  and  main- 
tained that  it  was  grievous  sin  to  separate  from 
their  true  Church.  But  Cromwell  and  his  army  put 
an  end  to  this  tyranny  and  established  a  system 
of  government  which  was  forced  to  be  tolerant  to 
all  sects  except  Churchmen,  Roman  Catholics, 
Quakers  and  Unitarians.  Thus  both  religiously 
and  politically  the  rebellion  was  a  failure.  Once 
indeed  the  Lord  Protector  permitted  a  free  elec- 
tion, and  the  Parliament  of  1654  is  known  as  the 
first  Parliament  representing  the  United  King- 
dom ;  but  its  early  dissolution  proved  that  con- 
stitutional government  was  impossible,  and 
Cromwell  did  not  dare  to  trust  again  to  a  free 
election. 

Religiously  the  government  was  a  parody,  and 
the  great  mass  of  the  people  were  indignantly 


256  THE  PURITAN  REACTION. 


restive  under  this  new  Papalism  and  longed  for 
the  Church's  restoration.  When  that  came  in 
1660,  the  reformation  of  the  Church  of  England 
may  be  said  to  have  been  completed.  The  con- 
flict had  been  for  one  hundred  years  on  the  inter- 
pretation of  the  Prayer  Book,  and  the  Church's 
revision  in  1662  settled  that  question  by  finally 
deciding  in  favor  of  Laud  as  against  the  Puritans. 

The  years  that  have  passed  since  the  Great 
Rebellion  have  removed  much  bitterness,  and 
sobered  men's  judgments  and  taught  them  many 
lessons  of  breadth,  of  wisdom,  of  toleration.  The 
ideal  Puritan  with  his  gloomy  solemnity,  his 
relentless  determination,  his  peculiarities  of  man- 
ner, of  dress,  and  conversation;  his  exquisite  as- 
sumption of  right  to  examine  into  other  men's 
consciences;  his  enormous  assurance,  his  pas- 
sionate zeal  for  a  narrow  and  Judaic  conception 
of  Christianity — has  passed  away  from  amongst 
us.  What  was  true  and  abiding  in  that  for  which 
he  contended  is  with  us  still.  For  the  present 
contains  the  harvest  of  all  the  past  and  the  seed 
of  all  the  future,  and  history  is  but  the  record  of 
God's  dealings  with  His  people,  whereby  He  has 
brought  good  out  of  apparent  evil  and  has  vindi- 
cated the  truth  of  that  unchangeable  law  of 
righteousness  to  which  all  human  actions  must 
ultimately  be  adjusted. 

Puritanism  has  been  regarded  by  many  as  a 


THE  PURITAN  REACTION. 


257 


necessary  factor  in  the  growth  of  that  civil  liberty 
with  which  at  the  Rebellion  it  was  accidentally 
associated.  But  nothing  can  be  clearer,  rein- 
forced as  it  is  by  the  history  of  New  England, 
than  that  not  only  was  there  no  essential  con- 
nection between  that  peculiar  form  of  reformed 
Christianity  and  our  modern  freedom;  but  that 
some  of  its  axioms  were  as  contradictory  to  our 
modern  conceptions  of  the  proper  relations  be- 
tween Church  and  State  as  were  the  theories  of 
Hildebrand  and  Innocent  III. 

Puritanism  as  a  system  must  be  judged  by  its 
immediate  results.  It  must  be  looked  at,  as  it 
was, — not  glorified  by  the  characters  of  individ- 
ual men  who  in  later  days  have  owned  hereditary 
allegiance  to  it;  not  as  modified  and  altered  to 
meet  new  conditions  and  adapted  to  the  more 
liberal  and  enlighted  conceptions  of  our  modern 
world.  The  Puritanism  we  have  been  consider- 
ing had  its  results  to  be  seen  and  read  of  all  men. 
As  Matthew  Arnold  *  says,  "  The  triumph  of  the 
Puritan  conception  and  presentation  of  righteous- 
ness was  so  at  war  with  the  ancient  and  inbred 
integrity,  piety  and  good  nature  and  good  humor 
of  the  English  people,  that  it  led  straight  to 
moral  anarchy,  to  the  profligacy  of  the  Restora- 
tion. It  led  to  the  court,  the'manners,  the  stage, 
the  literature  which  we  know.    It  led  to  the 

*  Essay  on  Falkland,  p.  170. 


258 


THE  PURITAN  REACTION. 


long-  discredit  of  serious  things,  to  the  dryness  of 
the  18th  century,  to  the  irreligion  which  vexed 
Butler's  righteous  soul,  the  aversion  and  incapac- 
ity for  all  deep  inquiries  concerning  religion  and 
its  sanctions,  to  the  belief  so  frequently  found 
now  among  the  followers  of  natural  science  that 
such  inquiries  are  unprofitable." 

It  checked  and  cramped  that  intellectual  and 
literary  development  which  was  the  glory  of 
Elizabeth's  reign.  An  alien  in  every  sense,  by 
birth  and  by  adoption,  it  has  been  a  source  of 
discord  to  the  English  Church — choking  the 
freedom  of  her  growth  and  deadening  her  spirit- 
ual power — breeding  that  widespread  and  un- 
happy dissension  and  disunion  which  is  the 
present  agony  of  the  English-speaking  Protes- 
tant world. 


